Cowboys vs. Cardinals Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 9

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 9 matchup between the Cowboys and Cardinals on Monday Night Football.

Find a breakdown of every Week 9 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Dak Prescott: Prescott was unable to overcome a difficult matchup last week in Denver, closing the week as QB23 with a season-low 6.6 fantasy points.

It was the first time since Week 1 that Prescott failed to throw a touchdown pass.

Last week, we mentioned that Dallas had some slight “Detroit” vibes in its play on the road versus at home.

Prescott’s three worst games this season have now come on the road.

This week, he gets to return home.

In three games in Dallas, Prescott has thrown 8 touchdowns and 1 interception, completing 73.8% of his passes for 7.7 yards per pass attempt.

He has finished as QB6 (22.1 points), QB1 (31 points), and QB8 (23.3 points) in those games.

Prescott has plenty of QB1 upside in a game environment that projects to be another potential shootout in Dallas.

Arizona is 25th in pressure rate (31.6%) and 28th in sack rate (4.3%).

The Cardinals play passively by design under Jonathan Gannon, looking to funnel underneath throws and prevent shot plays.

They are playing zone coverage on 75% of their snaps and Cover 4 on a league-high 29.5% of their snaps.

Prescott is second in the NFL with a 113.3 rating against zone coverage, completing a league-high 77.5% of his passes with 10 touchdowns and 1 interception.

Against man coverage, Prescott has an 86.1 rating (24th), completing 59.8% of his passes (15th) with 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

Against Cover 4 looks, Prescott is averaging 9.1 yards per pass attempt (6th).

The Cardinals have done a good job at limiting ceiling weeks so far.

The only top-10 scoring week they have allowed was to Daniel Jones, who also had a rushing touchdown.

That includes facing Jordan Love (13.4 points) and Sam Darnold (16.1 points), but they opened the year with a slate of limited passers, facing Spencer Rattler, Bryce Young, Mac Jones, and Cam Ward.

Kyler Murray (TRUST): Murray is expected to be back after the bye week and missing Weeks 6 and 7 due to a foot injury.

Murray has not thrown for more than 220 yards in any game this season.

He is averaging 6.0 yards per pass attempt, 29th in the league.

His 3.7% touchdown rate is 22nd.

Murray is averaging 5.8 air yards per pass attempt, ahead of only Dillon Gabriel.

Just 26.7% of Murray’s throws have been 10 or more yards downfield (30th).

Does Arizona keep in the offense that worked under Jacoby Brissett, or do they revert to what they were doing with Murray?

Brissett worked more under center, which opened up more play action.

Brissett was under center for 42.1% of his dropbacks, which allowed for a 33.8% play-action rate.

Murray has been under center only 20.9% of the time, which contributes to a 21.1% play-action rate (24th).

Even if Arizona does not calibrate, it may not matter here, given the state of the Dallas defense.

Murray has yet to log a QB1-scoring week this season.

This is a great place to break that trend.

The Cowboys have allowed six QB1 scoring weeks.

The only exceptions have been Bryce Young (who scored 18.5 points) and Washington in Week 7, when Jayden Daniels left the game early.

Dallas still allowed 21.6 points to Dainels and Mariota that week.

The Cowboys are allowing a league-high 20.4 passing points per game.

On top of that, they are 31st in rushing points allowed to quarterbacks (5.0 per game).

You do not need to stock the narrative that Murray has never lost a game in Texas since high school for him to score fantasy points against this defense.

Running Back

Javonte Williams: Williams was bottled up on Sunday, turning 14 touches into only 49 yards, but he managed to get into the end zone twice to elevate his fantasy line.

Like Prescott, the lowest-scoring games for Williams this season have come on the road, going as the offense goes.

In the potential high-scoring game conditions in Dallas, Williams is back in play as a back-end RB1.

Arizona is middle-of-the-pack in allowing 4.2 yards per carry (17th) and 13.8 rushing points per game (18th) to running backs (17th).

Arizona has allowed 4.2 YPC (25th) and 1.72 yards before contact (29th) on inside zone runs.

Those runs make up the most significant portion of Williams' runs (30.6%), which ranks ninth in the league.

Williams has not been overly used as a pass catcher, but Arizona is 23rd in receiving points allowed per game (9.6) to backfields as well.

He is not a fantasy start here, but Jaydon Blue is a back that should be rostered in every league.

Blue has 8 touches in each of the past two games.

He has worked as the clear backup to Williams and would be the contingent play in an offense we want attachment to.

Bam Knight: In Week 7 before the bye, Knight led the Arizona backfield with 17 touches for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Knight had the only backfield touches inside the 10-yard line.

The Cardinals released Michael Carter and then re-signed him to the practice squad with Emari Demercado ready to return.

The signal here is that Knight will be the early-down back with Demercado resuming his role as a pass catcher and playing in the hurry-up offense.

That gives Knight appeal as a matchup-based RB2.

Knight only averaged 3.8 yards per touch in Week 7, so he is far from a lock, and we are pricing in the matchup here more than the player.

The Cardinals have had issues running all season, no matter who the back is.

30.5% of the Arizona rushing plays have gained five or more yards, 31st in the league.

The Dallas defense has been an elixir for struggling backfield production.

The Cowboys have allowed 16.3 rushing points per game to backs (28th) and 159.9 total yards per game to backfields.

Wide Receiver

CeeDee Lamb: Lamb caught 7 of 10 targets for 74 yards on Sunday.

The Dallas offense sputtered, but Lamb still came out with a solid afternoon based on volume.

Lamb has averaged over 2.0 yards per route in all four games he has played this season.

He has been targeted on a team-high 26.9% of his routes.

Lamb is back on the board as a WR1 at home.

Arizona has been a unique pass defense so far.

They are allowing 9.6 yards per target to WR1 options this season (30th), but have not allowed a touchdown yet to those lead wideouts.

They have allowed only 3 touchdowns to wide receivers this season, all coming from the slot.

Lamb moves into the slow for 32% of his snaps this season, where he is posting 2.95 yards per route and earning a target on 31.9% of his routes.

George Pickens: Pickens also managed to produce a solid line on Sunday despite the lackluster production from the offense as a whole.

Pickens managed to secure 7 of 9 targets for 78 yards in Denver.

Since Lamb returned, Pickens has held onto a study 20% and 25.7% of the targets, seeing 52.8% and 26.3% of the air yards in those games.

In his past three games played with Lamb, Pickens has finished as WR15, WR28, and WR17.

Playing alongside Lamb, Pickens is an upside WR2.

As noted, Arizona has not given up touchdown production to outside receivers.

They are the only remaining team that has not allowed a touchdown to an outside receiver.

That will inevitably happen, but they are also allowing 8.1 yards per target to outside receivers (9th).

Pickens just turned in a solid game against a more formidable defense, even though the offense underperformed.

Marvin Harrison Jr. (TRUST): Harrison has been just as volatile to open this season as last year.

He has three WR2 or better scoring weeks and three weeks as WR47 or lower in his six full games played.

After averaging 3.6 receptions for 52.1 yards per game as a rookie, Harrison is averaging 3.4 receptions for 56.6 yards per game to start his second season.

He is averaging 2.2 more yards per reception this season, but has been targeted on only 16.7% of his routes compared to a 21.5% rate last season.

Harrison has struggled against man coverage this season, drawing a target on only 13.5% of his routes for 1.16 yards per route against man coverage.

Against zone coverage, he has been targeted on 18.1% of his routes for 1.87 yards per route.

While neither of those rates is flattering, this is a spot for him to cash in.

The Dallas secondary has been brutal and is banged up.

Trevon Diggs is on injured reserve, and Malik Hooker could still be absent on Monday.

Dallas is 29th in fantasy points allowed per game to WR1 targets (17.5) and has allowed a league-high 16.4% touchdown rate to those receivers.

Against outside receivers (where Harrison plays 80% of his snaps), Dallas has allowed 11.1 yards per target (31st) and a 12.4% touchdown rate (31st).

After a season-high 46.9% man coverage rate in Week 7, Dallas dropped down to a 26.3% rate of man coverage last week.

Michael Wilson: Wilson only has one top-40 scoring week, so he is still a thin fantasy option.

But if you are throwing a dart in deeper leagues or single-game DFS, Wilson has been on the field for 81.9% of the dropbacks this season.

Dallas is allowing a league-high 2.35 fantasy points per target to wide receivers.

Tight End

Trey McBride: No player was aided by the transition to Brissett more than McBride.

In his two games with Brissett, McBride had games of 8-72-1 (11 targets) and 10-74-2 (13 targets).

McBride had 3 touchdowns in two games with Brissett.

He has 5 over 39 games with Murray.

It is not about the touchdowns, however.

It goes back to those play-action splits.

McBride is second in the NFL in target share on play action passes (35.1%) behind only Jaxon Smith-Njigba (35.4%).

More play-action means more opportunities for McBride.

McBride still has a 26.8% target from Murray, so it is not as if we are not getting targets, but we would love to have those play-action looks available.

Even if we price in a dip from Brissett to Murray, this is still a good spot for high-volume TE1.

Dallas is allowing 5.8 receptions per game to tight ends (22nd) and a 79.3% catch rate (28th).

Jake Ferguson: Ferguson was shut out on Sunday, failing to catch a pass and only seeing 1 target come his way.

It was his first game without a catch since he was a part-time player as a rookie.

We have been highlighting that Ferguson’s fantasy output has been fragile since he is averaging only 4.4 air yards per target and 6.5 yards per reception.

He has been propped up by volume, and if that ever were to evaporate, so would his fantasy production.

That said, I did not see 0 receptions coming.

Brian Schottenheimer credited Denver's wide defense for limiting Ferguson.

This is the second time in three weeks that Ferguson has had a target in single digits, something to keep tabs on.

This is still a game environment we want to be attached to, so it's hard not to give Ferguson more runway as a TE1, given how good Dallas has been, especially at home.

I would expect him to bounce back in this matchup.

Tight ends have scored 23.3% of the fantasy points against Arizona (6th highest).

The Cardinals have allowed TE1 weeks to Juwan Johnson (8-76-0), Ja’Tavion Sanders (7-54-0), A.J. Barner (3-32-1), Tyler Warren (6-63-1), and Tucker Kraft (5-58-1).

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