3 years agoJames Conner finished as the RB9 on a per-game basis in his first season with the Arizona Cardinals. That was over the course of the entire season. In Weeks 9-14 when Chase Edmonds was out due to injury, Conner averaged 25.8 PPR points per game, which was good for RB2 over that stretch behind only Jonathan Taylor. The Cardinals rewarded the two-time Pro Bowler by signing him to a three-year, $21M deal with $13.5M guaranteed. The contract, combined with letting Edmonds walk in free agency and not taking a running back until the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft suggests this is Conner's backfield in 2022. With Edmonds out, Conner was handed an 86% snap share. He averaged 17 carries and 5.2 targets in those five games. Those 22.2 opportunities per game included a whopping 3.6 red zone rush attempts, which led to eight total touchdowns during that stretch. While he's unlikely to see an 86% snap share in most games this season, that number could still hover around 65-70% given his role as a three-down back. Eno Benjamin and Keaontay Ingram will certainly see the field, but Kliff Kingsbury showed us last season he's more than comfortable having Conner out there as an every-down guy. As long as the injury bug doesn't bite, he's got a good chance to finish as a back-end RB1 in 2022 on a Cardinal team that is consistently top-10 in plays run per game.--Adam Koffler - RotoBaller