49ers vs. Cardinals Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 3

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 3 matchup between the 49ers and Cardinals.

Find a breakdown of every Week 3 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Kyler Murray: Murray has opened the season with QB14 (18.3 points) and QB23 (14.0 points) scoring weeks.

Those are underwhelming performances considering he started the year with games against the Saints and Panthers.

Part of that limited output has been due to Arizona controlling those games.

The Cardinals have a 67.2% dropback rate in the first half of games (6th), but that has dropped to 54.9% in the second half of games (21st).

Murray is fourth in the NFL in rating in the first half (126.1), completing 22 of 31 (71%) throws for 7.8 yards per attempt and 3 touchdowns.

In the second half, he is 29th with a 67.3 rating, completing 16 of 23 passes (69.6%) for 6.1 Y/A with 0 touchdowns and an interception.

Arizona should be expected to stay aggressive throughout the whole game here.

The tradeoff is that the matchup is not as strong as it was in the opening two weeks.

San Francisco has allowed 6.3 Y/A (10th) and 8.7 yards per completion (3rd).

They have faced Sam Darnold and Spencer Rattler, so take that with a grain of salt.

They also have allowed a 5.3% touchdown rate (21st) to those quarterbacks.

Murray is not a stranger to facing a Robert Saleh defense.

In four starts against Saleh when he was with the 49ers, Murray averaged 22.9 fantasy points per game.

Those were much more talented units than this current one.

In his lone start against Saleh when he was with the Jets, Murray was the QB4 (28.7 points).

Where Murray has gotten over in those matchups is through his legs.

He has rushed for 57.6 yards per game over those five starts with 4 touchdowns.

Murray has scrambled more to start the season, running on 10.4% of his dropbacks, which would be a career high if that holds.

Murray has been uninspiring, but I would give him another look as a fringe QB1 and sneaky option in DFS.

Mac Jones: Jones delivered a QB8 (21.8 points) scoring week in his first start with the 49ers, connecting on 26 of 39 attempts (66.7%) for 279 yards (7.2 Y/A) with 3 touchdowns.

On throws of 10 or more yards downfield, Jones went 8 of 14 for 151 yards.

38.5% of his attempts resulted in a first down or touchdown, eighth best in Week 2.

That came on the road against a New Orleans team that did not attack Jones.

Jones was pressured on only 19% of his dropbacks, the third-lowest rate in Week 2.

He was blitzed on only 14.3% of his dropbacks, the seventh-lowest rate in Week 2.

The good news is that it should roll over here.

Arizona is in the middle of the pack with a 35.8% pressure rate (17th) and has only blitzed 14.2% of the time (28th).

They have faced Spencer Rattler and Bryce Young, so we should get a better gauge on whether their 5.4 yards per pass attempt allowed (third) is real.

Jones is in play as a floor-based QB2 again this week, with added upside should he run as hot in the touchdown department.

Running Back

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