Kenyan Drake absolutely crushed it in fantasy in Week 15

The Arizona Cardinals aren’t the least bit good, but man, did Kenyan Drake have himself a ball game vs. the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon.

Let’s face it. The Arizona Cardinals weren’t going to do a ton of winning this year. They were rolling with a first-year NFL head coach and a rookie starting quarterback for the second time in two years. That being said, the Cardinals did find a way to snap a lengthy losing streak on Sunday and bested the Cleveland Browns in Glendale. You can thank running back Kenyan Drake for that.

The Fantasy Footballers put some respect on Drake’s name on Monday, as their new favorite Cardinals running back went to town on the Browns. Drake had 22 carries for 137 yards and an unbelievable four touchdowns. Throw in a nine-yard catch and Drake had over 35 fantasy points in Week 15. If you have him on your team, that so got you into the finals. If not, that’s too bad.

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And with that win, the Cardinals improve to a lousy 4-9-1 on the year. Granted, they play in one of the better divisions in the NFL, but this record isn’t anything to write home about unless you’re the Cardinals. They are already a win and a tie better than there were a season ago. The worst they can do this season in 4-11-1. Last year, the Cardinals went an atrocious 3-13. It’s progress.

So why does any of this matter in terms of fantasy football? Well, there are a few things we can learn from Drake’s sensational day in the Valley of the Sun vs. the Browns. The first is that this Cardinals team hasn’t quit on first-year head coach Kliff Kingsbury. This team believes in its corps and may be a team poised to take that next step forward as a franchise to relevancy in 2020.

The second is we’ve seen Kingsbury lean on the running game more than he ever did as a college coach at Texas Tech or in any job before that. Keep in mind that he’s a disciple of the Mike Leach Air Raid offense. To see Kingsbury this bought into the ground game bodes well for the Cardinals to be more competitive next year and that he may very well have staying power as an NFL coach.

Lastly, it seems that Drake will be the RB1 on the Cardinals next season. Arizona traded for him this year with the Miami Dolphins. People wondered why the Cardinals did that. Sunday proved to all of us their logic. With David Johnson no longer a factor and Chase Edmonds being a nice story before he got hurt, this does feel like Drake will be the featured back once again in Arizona in 2020.