Waiver wire: Cardinals RB situation

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David Johnson has always been used heavily in the passing game for the Cardinals, as evidenced by his 80 receptions in 2016.

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Bruce Arians has already vowed to help protect Carson Palmer by calling plays with shorter passing routes and Andre Ellington fits the mold to replace DJ better than Kerwynn Williams when it comes to the passing game – Ellington has had two seasons in his career with 39 receptions or more. His career high is 46 receptions. Williams is in his 5th season in the league and came into Sunday with just 5 receptions total in his career.

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Neither RB had significant numbers Sunday in DJ’s absence – Ellington had 2 receptions for 35 yards on Sunday vs Detroit while Williams had just 1 reception for 2 yards. Ellington did not get handed the ball once out of the backfield. Williams was featured 5 times for 10 rushing yards and a 3 yard TD. However, Johnson played almost 3 quarters so both players’ opportunities were limited. With Johnson’s workload getting cut those numbers will go up for both players.

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The Cardinals offensive line did not look very good on Sunday so it remains to be seen how productive their running game could be after a 2016 campaign of poor blocking. Arians can combat the poor blocking by featuring Ellington on short routes out of the backfield and he can emerge as a reliable option for Palmer.

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Bottom line: Target Ellington for PPR leagues as he should have a lot more targets than Williams. For standard leagues it’s a toss up with a lean towards Ellington – Williams will likely get the goal line work while Ellington will rack up points on receiving yards.

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