It’s been a difficult year for Carson Palmer’s fantasy football owners this season, as he was drafted as a middling, solid QB1. However, in raw fantasy points, he is anything but that. He is between Eli Manning and Ryan Tannehill on a raw points basis, making him the #20 quarterback in the season. He’s had fewer than 16 fantasy points four times this season in the eleven games that he’s played so far this year.

The Cardinals’ passing game, predictably, has been a mess that has gone down with Palmer’s ship. He got off to a sluggish start, which sent the team on a downward spiral that they just can’t escape.

[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]

While the Cardinals are circling the drain, Palmer has had sporadic relevance, but he has picked it up lately from a touchdowns sense, at least. He has multiple touchdowns in each of the last three games, and four of the last five.

He’s thrown for 300 or more yards in four of the last six games, and has only thrown one interception in the last two games. He’s taken on two of the worst defenses against quarterbacks, and he has taken advantage of his opportunities. He gets another such team this week.

The Cardinals travel to Miami this week to take on a Dolphins team that has given up the fourth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season, and that number should be higher if they spent the entire season in their current iteration. Since the Dolphins put super stud safety Reshad Jones on IR, they’ve been an entirely different team against quarterbacks.

The Dolphins put him on IR on October 19, and since then, they’ve yielded an average of 21.43 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. With Jones, they gave up 15.07. The 15.07 would put them just between the Cardinals and Texans, who currently sit at #28 and #29 in fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. 21.43 fantasy points per game would put them at #1, ahead of Atlanta’s 21.15.

Carson Palmer has a great matchup in front of him against a Miami team that is one of the worst in football at stopping the opposing quarterback from producing fantasy points. They’re #4, but in their current iteration, they’re the worst.

If you’re trying to decide between Palmer and other, lesser options, I would go with Palmer. He is a high-variance play, so if you’re in the playoffs, I would only do it if you need a massive game to win (if you’re a huge underdog against your opponent, for example). He could have a good game, as everything is trending in the right direction for him to do so.

However, you likely have a better option and he’s better off a DFS play of if you need a massive game to take out a superior opponent.