Cardinals @ Steelers Week 13 Game Preview
Jonathan Fuller breaks down the Week 13 matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers from a fantasy football and betting perspective.
Arizona Cardinals @ Pittsburgh Steelers
One of the funniest storylines of Week 12 was the Steelers' offense putting up 400+ yards in their first game since firing Matt Canada after failing to reach that output in any of the 44 games with Canada as the OC.
They have a good shot to repeat that effort in Week 13 against a Cardinals defense that ranks 30th in both dropback EPA and rush EPA allowed per play.
The favorable matchup makes most of the Steelers' skill position players startable this week. Both Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren are top-24 RBs in the Fantasy Life consensus ranks after we saw Kyren Williams put up 200+ scrimmage yards against this Arizona defense last week. Warren is one of my favorite picks in Underdog Battle Royale contests this week after his down performance last week has caused him to tumble down draft boards.
The WRs are a bit less attractive, but still strong fantasy starts with Diontae Johnson and George Pickens among the top 36 WRs in the Fantasy Life ranks for the week.
After Pat Freiermuth led the NFL in receiving yards last week, he has made the jump into the top 10 TEs for the week and looks to be the main beneficiary of the Steelers’ newfound willingness to throw over the middle of the field.
We can’t expect everyone to get there in this matchup, but if you have Steelers players, you’ll probably want them in your lineup, as they all have the upside to deliver a monster game.
For the Cardinals, the on-field product has been much better since the return of Kyler Murray, even if it isn’t leading to many wins. They don’t have a great matchup on the road against a solid Pittsburgh defense, but if we expect the Steelers to put up points, then Arizona could be forced to throw to keep up. Murray attempted 45 passes last week in a negative game script, and we could see something similar play out this week.
Trey McBride is emerging as one of the best TE options on a weekly basis and has an elite 29% target share since Week 8. He is the TE3 in the Fantasy Life consensus ranks for the week and should be in your lineup if you have him.
Both Marquise Brown and James Conner are decent options, but neither has shown a real ceiling since Murray returned to the lineup. Brown did see 186 air yards in Week 12, so if we see a repeat of that game script, it is possible he could hit for a big game if he gets on the same page with Murray.
I think this matchup does have more sneaky shootout potential than we are used to seeing from a game in Pittsburgh, but my biggest concern is that the Steelers just lean on their RBs and shorten the game by bleeding clock with the run game. Hopefully, we get some explosive plays from the Pittsburgh offense to keep the pace up and force the Cardinals into comeback mode.