Rondale Moore - Fantasy Points Outlook

What You Need to Know:

• Moore played in 14 of 17 regular-season games as a rookie, missing the final 3 with an ankle injury before returning for Arizona’s playoff loss.
• He tallied a 54-435-1 receiving line, plus 76 yards on 18 carries.
• That left Moore 85th among WRs in PPR points per game and 103rd in non-PPR points per game.
• He finished as a top-40 PPR WR in only 3 of his 14 weeks.
• Moore played more than 50% of Arizona’s offensive snaps in only 4 games and topped 61% just once (81% in Week 9).
• Among 89 WRs with 50+ targets last season, Moore ranked 1st in catch rate (84.4%) but 88th in yards per catch (8.1).
• That was because of Moore’s minuscule 1.2-yard average depth of target.
  • That ranked dead last by a wide margin among those 89 WRs with 50+ targets last season. The next lowest mark was Braxton Berrios at 4.9.
  • No WR with 50+ targets over the previous 9 seasons finished with an average depth of target below 4.3 yards.
• Moore at least made the most of those short-range targets with his after-catch ability. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, he averaged 1.5 more yards after reception than expected. That ranked 12th among WRs.
• The Cardinals lost WR Christian Kirk and RB Chase Edmonds in free agency this offseason. Those 2 combined for 26.4% of Arizona’s targets last year.
• WR DeAndre Hopkins is suspended for the first 6 games of the season. He averaged 6.9 targets on a 21.6% share in his 9 healthy games last year.
• Arizona swung a trade for WR Marquise Brown during the 1st-round of this spring’s draft. Brown is coming off a 146-target, 91-catch season. He played 2 seasons with QB Kyler Murray at Oklahoma.
• RB James Conner, WR A.J. Green and TE Zach Ertz return from last year’s Cardinals squad.
• HC Kliff Kingsbury returns for his 4th season with the Cardinals.
  • Kingsbury has been a pass-leaning play caller, with Arizona ranking 5th, 12th and 4th situation-neutral pass rate over the last 3 years.
• Kingsbury has talked up a more diverse role for Moore this season.
  • “We utilized him in different ways than we will this year,” Kingsbury said in early June. “We kind of got it to him in space and did some things and used him on some check downs, but he’s a dynamic route runner. I think that’s what people are going to see. He’s really good getting out of his cuts, good at the top of routes, so I think people are going to see a different side of him.”
• Cardinals HC Kliff Kingsbury singled out WR Rondale Moore when asked for a young player who's flashed this offseason.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Moore wasn’t a fantasy factor as a rookie last season, playing a part-time role and seeing the vast majority of his targets near the line of scrimmage.

But there are reasons for optimism heading into year 2. WR Christian Kirk and Chase Edmonds are gone. And WR DeAndre Hopkins is suspended for the first 6 games of the season. Even with the arrival of WR Marquise Brown, there’s room for Moore to carve out a much bigger role in 2022. And HC Kliff Kingsbury has talked up a more diverse role for Moore this season.

There’s enticing upside here – and Moore figures to be available in the double-digit rounds of your fantasy drafts.