Seahawks Fantasy Corner: Chris Carson Primed for Big Game in Week 7
After a weekend spent relaxing and watching other teams around the league, Seahawks fans should be feeling pretty good about where their team stands. But if you're a fan who plays fantasy football, it may have been a rough week for you without the firepower provided by Brian Schottenheimer's offense. Plugging Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf back into your lineup should bring a smile to your face. But there may be one other Seahawk who is primed for a true "breakout" performance and that's running back Chris Carson.
Although he's looked excellent after missing the final three games in 2019, Carson has seen his workload in the ground game decreased significantly. But this is thanks in large part to the Seahawks' new aerial attack, not poor play on the part of Carson. But despite the relative lack of carries, Carson has evolved his role in the offense in an overlooked way: he's catching a lot of passes.
Through five games in 2020, Carson has snagged 21 passes for 140 yards. At that pace, the fourth-year back is on his way to 67 catches for 448 yards and 10 receiving scores. Those numbers would shatter his current career highs of 37 catches for 266 yards and two touchdowns set just last season. Carson is an obvious threat in the passing game and the sharpening of this skill could be on display this weekend.
The Cardinals are a solid football team with a 4-2 record. They have a stout defense led by a secondary that includes Budda Baker, Patrick Peterson, and Byron Murphy Jr. They have accumulated 17.0 sacks in six weeks and are allowing just 18.7 points per game.
However, there are three things we need to keep in mind. First, they've hardly faced the murders row of quarterbacks. Thus far this defense has faced: Jimmy Garoppolo, Dwayne Haskins, Matthew Stafford, Teddy Bridgewater, Joe Flacco, and Andy Dalton. Second, Arizona will be without arguably the best pass rusher in the NFL, Chandler Jones, for the remainder of the season. And third, running backs have feasted on Cardinal linebackers all year long.
Coming into Week 7, the Cardinals have allowed seven or more receptions to running backs in three of their six games, including 10 receptions to running backs in their blowout victory against the Dalton-led Cowboys. The Cardinals are allowing, on average, 5.17 receptions for 49 yards to running backs and that includes a game in which Washington completed just one pass to their backs for negative three yards.
If we remove this game from the equation, Arizona has allowed an average of six catches for 60 yards to running backs. The increased workload in the passing game combined with the Cardinals middle of the pack run defense paints a picture of a Chris Carson breakout. 150 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns is well within the range of outcomes this week and if you play in a PPR, a lot of that damage could come through the passing game.
