2025 Arizona Cardinals Preview: Avoid James Conner, Buy Trey Benson's Breakout

The Arizona Cardinals enter 2025 with a mix of emerging stars, aging veterans, and fantasy wild cards. From breakout buzz around Trey Benson to the elite volume of tight end Trey McBride, this offense could quietly be a fantasy goldmine—if you draft the right pieces.

Breakout Player

Trey Benson, Running Back

James Conner has been a great addition to the Cardinals’ offense over the past four seasons, but age (30) is not his friend. Arizona has already stated that Benson will see many touches this year, while also mentioning that he will be RB1B on their roster. Over the past five weeks, he ranked 43rd at running back over 65 drafts in the high-stakes market. Running back information will be fluid over the next month, and I expect Benson to climb up draft boards due to a higher floor potential breakout ceiling. He will be a player I will fight for in drafts, even when his price point rises.

James Conner on Cardinals RB Trey Benson:

“We’re both RB1, he’s gonna play a lot this year.”
— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) August 2, 2025

Foundation Stud

Trey McBride, Tight End

After two updates of my 2025 productions, McBride is my third-highest ranked player in catches (117) behind Puka Nacua (124) and CeeDee Lamb (119). For him to reach a higher ceiling, the Cardinals must find a way to get him more involved in scoring. He is the clear number one target for Kyler Murray, highlighted by his five games last year with nine catches or more (9/124, 12/133, 12/96, 9/87, and 12/123/1). McBride rides into this season with a two-game scoring streak!

Bust

James Conner, Running Back

If I expect Trey Benson to be a breakout player, Conner naturally falls into the fade category. He’ll give off the appearance of being a mid-range value RB2, and Conner may play well out of the gate. Unfortunately, his heavy workload in 2024 (283 touches – career high) will catch up to him at some point this year. For the fantasy drafters kicking his tires over the past couple of seasons, his new tread will be wearing number 33.

Value

Kyler Murray, Quarterback

Over the past four seasons, Murray has underperformed expectations due to some injuries and less value running the ball. His passing floor is reasonable based on his best four seasons while still showing big-play ability in the run game (7.3 yards per carry). The key to his climb up the quarterback rankings (10th in early August) is finishing more drives with touchdowns and bigger plays via the pass. His chemistry with Marvin Harrison must improve in his sophomore campaign.

What if 2025 Kyler Murray is more like 2020 Kyler Murray and less like 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 Kyler Murray? pic.twitter.com/5kBrjTh0Mp
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) August 4, 2025

Hung Jury

Marvin Harrison Jr, Wide Receiver

The fantasy market was let down by Harrison in his rookie season (62/885/8 on 116), but his college resume paints him as an impact scoring player (28 TDs over 25 games in 2022 and 2023). On the downside, Kyler Murray struggled to be on the same page with him on too many plays (53.4% catch rate) last year, while also looking for another check-down option more times than not. I don’t like the report of him battling sore knees this summer, which puts Harrison into the coin toss category.