Arizona Cardinals Snap Counts

Arizona avoided a scare when David Johnson went down with what turned out to be just a sprain. He did leave the game, which led Kerwynn Williams to lead the way, with some Andre Eillington mixed in. Larry Fitzgerald had a casual day, playing 66% of the snaps, as many got in on the workload.

The first week without Michael Floyd, we saw JJ Nelson play 70% of the team snaps. John Brown is still not 100% with his injury, and played just 48%. Jermaine Gresham and Nelson remain the options outside of Larry Fitzgerald. David Johnson continued his usual snaps, and will look to finish the season strong.

Michael Floyd was cut from the team, which forced JJ Nelson into a bigger role. He played 78% of the team snaps this week, and nearly found the end zone twice. Jermaine Gresham played 63% of the team snaps this week, yet didn't get a ton of action in the passing game.

Arizona put out what they usually do this past week, although we saw Michael Floyd play 99% of the snaps, which may or may not change next week with his legal troubles. JJ Nelson played 31% of the snaps, and was the highest scoring fantasy player of the Cardinals, and yes even more than David Johnson.

The WR2 role has been all over the place this season for Arizona, in fact we have really seen David Johnson be the high targeted player in the passing game. This week he was targeted 12 times, but we also saw Michael Floyd play a reasonable amount of snaps. John Brown was also out there, playing 28% of the snaps.

David Johnson had another game over 100 yards, and a lot of it was through the air. He played 58 snaps, which was 88% of the team snaps. Jermaine Gresham was also a big part of the offense, playing 94% of the team snaps. This might be due to the lack of wideouts being healthy or thriving behind Larry Fitzgerald.

Arizona drew a tough matchup this week against Minnesota, yet you couldn't tell by the way David Johnson played. He saw 85% of the snaps, and was utilized on more than half of them. JJ Nelson played just 41% of the snaps, as it was Jermaine Gresham and Michael Floyd doing the heavy lifting.

There were talks of JJ Nelson going into this week being the WR2, which he started out as, before having a fumble on his first catch set him back. We then saw Michael Floyd play 75% of the snaps, and John Brown was nowhere to be found. David Johnson had a solid week, and played 89% of the team snaps.

Bye Week

Another week where Arizona went out to the east coast and got crushed. Michael Floyd was out this week and John Brown was a bit banged up. JJ Nelson stepped up in a big way, playing 65 snaps in a come from behind effort against Carolina. David Johnson played his usual workload, but failed to get anything going.

Arizona against Seattle was a boring overtime game, which led to a ton of snaps for Arizona. John Brown didn't play and Jaron Brown tore his ACL, this pushed JJ Nelson into 80 snaps. He was targeted on nine percent of them. He would be an intriguing flier moving forward if Brown continues to sit.

As usual we saw David Johnson play a heavy workload, which resulted in three touchdowns. With Arizona blowing out New York at home, Drew Stanton grabbed some snaps towards the end of the game. There was a pretty good mix of Jaron Brown, John Brown, and Michael Floyd this week. We even saw some JJ Nelson.

Carson Palmer ended up missing the Thursday night game, which forced Drew Stanton into 100% of the snaps. Palmer should be back this week. David Johnson continues to be a workhorse, playing 53 snaps, which was 78% of the workload. Outside of Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd, we didn't see any other wideout come in for a heavy workload.

It was an ugly week for the Arizona Cardinals, who fell to the Los Angeles Rams at home. Carson Palmer left late in the game with a possible concussion, which resulted in Drew Stanton seeing a few snaps at the end of the game. David Johnson continued his massive role in the offense, playing 73% of the snaps.

The Cardinals were in comeback mode against Buffalo, after Carson Palmer's numerous interceptions. That did not affect David Johnson, who played 96% of the snaps. He also lined up in the slot. With the way the game played, it was no surprise that John and Jaron Brown got some snaps in heavy wide receiver sets.

It was a blowout win for Arizona against Tampa Bay, which led to some backups receiving work. Chris Johnson received 21 snaps in relief of David Johnson, who played 62% of the snaps. We can take away that Andre Ellington is a non-factor in the run game after this week.

In week 1 we saw a different approach from Arizona, as they rarely ran out a third wide receiver. John Brown might not have been completely healthy, playing zero snaps. This maxed out Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, and David Johnson to play 95% of the offensive snaps. Tight ends are still an avoid in Arizona, as the three split shares.

Quarterback Snap Counts

Running Back Snap Counts

Wide Receivers & Tight End Snap Counts

Arizona Cardinals Snap Count Breakdown

The Cardinals have been through a lot with Carson Palmer, but he finally played an entire season in 2015, and everyone is holding their collective breath that he can do that again in 2016. Palmer played 94 percent of the Cardinals offensive snaps in 2015, and played in all 16 games. He is in the same position this year, and barring injury, should be in line for the same results

Running back gets a slightly more tricky, but it appears David Johnson will take over the featured role in the offense. The split was really even last year between Johnson, Andre Ellington and Chris Johnson, but as the season went along and (Chris) Johnson went out with injury, (David) Johnson took control, including the playoffs.

In terms of seasonal distribution, David Johnson had 37 percent of the snaps, Chris Johnson had 33 percent and Andre Ellington had 19 percent. With the way things have shaken out, there's likely not much to take away from these numbers.

The Cardinals played a ton of three wide receiver sets in 2015, and that showed in the snap distribution. John Brown and Larry Fitzgerald both played above 75 percent of the snaps in 2015 and Michael Floyd played 59 percent. Floyd had a few injuries and missed a game, so fi he can stay healthy in 2016, his snaps should jump up to what Brown and Fitzgerald were. Second year speedster JJ Nelson picked up 13 percent of the snaps in his rookie season. While Nelson is going to eat into any of the top three receivers role, he could carve out the main four wide receiver role in four wide receiver sets. Based on his rookie year performance, it's likely he picks into Jaron Brown's 25 percent of the snaps significantly.

Tight end should once again be a far from glamorous position. Jermaine Gresham is back after re-signing in the offseason. Him and Darren Fells were both on the field for above 50 percent of the snaps in 2015. While that means a lot of tight end snaps to go around, they were mostly as blocking situations. Troy Niklas played 16 percent as well, but the former second round pick is rumored to be on the roster bubble.