Seahawks vs. Cardinals Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 12

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 12 matchup between the Seahawks and Cardinals.

Find a breakdown of every Week 12 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Kyler Murray: Murray comes out of the bye playing the best stretch of football he has all season.

Murray has found some footing after a rocky start to the season for fantasy, closing three of the past four games as a QB1 scorer and four of his past six.

He has had spike weeks through rushing, but his passing over this recent run has elevated him.

After throwing for fewer than 7.0 yards per pass attempt in six of the first seven games this season, Murray has posted 8.5, 7.7, and 11.1 yards per pass in the past three games.

He has completed 76.3% of his passes over those weeks.

The Cardinals have pulled things in a bit.

In the past two games, 67.7% and 62.3% of Murray’s yards have come after the catch, his two highest season rates.

That could be noisy since Arizona does not have many pass catchers we stock as YAC-centric assets, but I also want to give the scheme the benefit of the doubt.

Murray has gotten a bit lucky this season in terms of touchdown production.

55% (11-of-20) of his throws into the end zone have been touchdowns, the highest rate in the league among passers with double-digit attempts.

The league rate is 36.1%

Murray’s previous career high is 37.5%.

Murray still has that rushing upside paired with his recent passing efficiency, making him a QB1 option. However, this will be a good test to find out some truths about Murray and this Seattle pass defense.

The Seahawks have allowed 6.8 yards per pass attempt to Matthew Stafford and 5.7 yards per attempt to Brock Purdy in their past two games.

They still have allowed 17.9 and 18.4 fantasy points to those passers, but they have not allowed a QB1 scorer in a game since Week 6.

Seattle has increased its man coverage rate recently, climbing to 35.8% of passing snaps over its past three games (24.8% prior).

They have been over 30% in all three weeks.

Murray has pronounced splits man and zone coverages.

Against zone coverage, he has completed 73.5% of his passes (5th) for 8.4 Y/A (11th).

Against man coverage, he has completed 54.5% of his passes (22nd) for 4.8 Y/A (35th).

Only Bryce Young has a lower Y/A against man coverage.

Geno Smith: Smith completed a season-high 78.1% (25-of-32) of his passes on Sunday in San Francisco and added 29 yards and a rushing touchdown.

But he did not throw a touchdown through the air, logging a QB22 (15.7 points) week.

Smith has run into some tough luck with passing scores.

Smith has run cold in the same area we discussed with Murray running hot.

Just 5 of his 22 passes (22.7%) into the end zone have been completed, 32nd in the league.

I have Smith throwing 6.2 fewer touchdowns than expected, the unluckiest quarterback in the league in passing scores.

There is upside here for a shootout. I will be circling this game for DFS.

But Smith is best used as a QB2 in seasonal leagues and reserved for game stacks when chasing his upside.

We have been talking about this Arizona defense for a while now, how it has soft peripheral numbers but is preventing fantasy points.

Arizona is 29th in the league in pressure rate (29.3%), 24th in completion rate (68.4%), and 18th in yards allowed per pass attempt (7.2 Y/A).

But they have allowed only a 3.4% touchdown rate, which is 9th.

Could this be a spot for both Smith and the Cardinals to regress toward the mean of where their passing touchdown should be?

The Cardinals have allowed just three QB1 scoring weeks this season, and they have faced Matthew Stafford (QB30), Jared Goff (QB18), Brock Purdy (QB19), Justin Herbert (QB16), Tua Tagovailoa (QB20) and Aaron Rodgers (QB28).

Say what you want about those passers, but that is not a soft set of opponents.

They also have faced Josh Allen (QB1), Jayden Daniels (QB5), and Jordan Love (QB3) as the spike weeks they have allowed.

That is a good set of passers, especially in the context of the 2024 season.

Running Back

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