Dolphins vs. Cardinals Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 8

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 8 matchup between the Dolphins and Cardinals.

Find a breakdown of every Week 8 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Tua Tagovailoa: All signs point to Tua returning to the field this Sunday after missing the past four games with a concussion.

Tagovailoa’s return to the field will significantly upgrade this offense, which has been a shadow of itself working through Tyler Huntley, Tim Boyle, and Skylar Thompson.

Under Mike McDaniel, Miami has averaged 6.4 yards per play with Tua on the field compared to 4.7 yards per play without him.

That is the difference between No. 1 in the NFL and dead last over that period.

Miami has averaged 4.3 yards per play without Tua on the field this season, which would be ahead of only the Browns.

Given the length of his absence, we can price in some volatility here for Tagovailoa, but he is returning to an objectively strong spot to warrant QB1 consideration.

He is at home against an Arizona pass defense that we have picked on all season (on a short week across the country for an early kick).

This is a spot to get him acclimated.

Arizona is 29th in pressure rate (23.1%), and they have been carved up when not creating pressure.

Without pressuring the opposing passer, Arizona has allowed 8.4 yards per attempt (30th), a 73.7% completion percentage (26th), and a 5.4% touchdown rate (25th).

Kyler Murray: Murray had another anemic passing performance on Monday night, completing a season-low 53.8% (14-of-26) of his passes for 145 yards (5.6 Y/A) with a touchdown and an interception.

Murray has not thrown multiple touchdowns or had 7.0 yards per pass attempt in any of his games outside of facing the Rams.

He has struggled to connect downfield, completing 40.6% of his passes 10 or more yards downfield (24th) despite being 11th in the rate of those throws (32.7%).

Murray elevated his fantasy line through his legs despite another lackluster passing game.

He rushed for 64 yards and a touchdown, a 44-yard scamper down the sidelined.

Murray has been a QB1 in two of his past five games with those two games coming attached to touchdown runs of 50 and 44 yards.

That is a challenging way to live, which is why I still want to use Murray as a QB2 capable of spike weeks when we get the rushing output, but he has had a lower floor than ceiling due to his passing output.

If you are just putting your head down and running Murray out in 1QB leagues because the streaming options are too thin, no quarterback has finished in the top half of weekly points against the Dolphins.

That is semi-deceiving because Miami has been so awful as a team and played steadily from behind.

The Dolphins have faced the fewest passing attempts per game (25.5) because they have rarely led this season.

After facing Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen, and Geno Smith to open the year, they have faced Mason Rudolph, Jacoby Brissett, and Anthony Richardson in the past three games.

This team is tough to evaluate defensively because of its schedule and game scripts, but the top-down metrics look solid while Arizona’s passing game has hardly impressed to this point.

Miami leads the NFL in pressure rate (42.6%), is third in completion rate (59.5%), is eighth in yards allowed per attempt (6.5), and is first in touchdown rate (1.9%).

Running Back

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