James Conner

While his snap share through the first 5 weeks of 2023 wasn’t quite in the 90% range we saw last year, Conner asserted himself early on this season as one of the few remaining bell-cow running backs who you can count on to get roughly 20 touches per game. With Conner set to miss at least 2 more games with a knee injury, the Cardinals are forced to turn to Emari Demercado and Keaontay Ingram to handle backfield duties. Through the first 2 games Conner has been out, the backfield has been a headache for fantasy managers, but it seems like Demercado is beginning to separate himself as the lead running back.

At this point, there haven’t been a lot of updates around the progress of Conner’s injury, and it’s no guarantee he’ll be back by week 10. Some Cardinals beat writers have even teased the idea that Arizona may consider waiting to activate Conner until after their bye in week 14 if he’s not 100% healthy. Demercado should be rostered in all leagues for the time being, and it’s worthwhile to roster Ingram in deeper leagues.

In week 7, Demercado seized the lead role and handled 80% of the snaps for the Cardinals backfield while scoring 11.5 fantasy points in PPR format. This was after being the most popular waiver wire add and dropping a total dud in week 6. Fantasy Managers should double check he wasn’t dropped by a frustrated manager after his disappointing week 6, and shouldn’t be afraid to fire him up in week 8 against a Ravens Defense that has been porous against the run.