Kenyan Drake has achieved RB1 status, but will he stay there?

Is Kenyan Drake an RB1 in fantasy football for the 2020 Arizona Cardinals?

The Arizona Cardinals may have one of the most exciting teams in the NFL this year. Even though they only won five games a season ago, things are looking up for Kliff Kingsbury’s team. Kyler Murray should progress in his second year as the starting quarterback, Larry Fitzgerald is still here and the team traded for DeAndre Hopkins. What about getting a full-year out of Kenyan Drake?

The Fantasy Footballers have Drake as their No. 11 running back heading into the 2020 fantasy football season. Drake came over to the Cardinals mid-season last year by way of the Miami Dolphins. Almost immediately upon arrival, Drake asserted himself as the best running back on the Cardinals’ roster over Chase Edmonds and David Johnson. He has earned the starting job.

Check out The Fantasy Footballers for all their advice.

Even though the guys are all Cardinals fans, them being bullish on Drake isn’t out of left field. They saw what he did a season ago when he got a bigger workload than he did at any point in Miami. Drake thrived in Kingsbury’s offense, taking advantage of all the available space he had by virtue of playing in some variation of a collegiate Air Raid offense. What can he be for them in 2020?

Will Kenyan Drake remain a top-12 running back in fantasy going forward?

While there is some variance to what Drake can be in this Cardinals offense and what he can mean for your fantasy team, the guys view him as good as a top-six running back or as bad as a top-18 one. They compare him favorably to what Lamar Miller was when he first arrived on the Houston Texans roster a few years ago, being able to take advantage of an increased workload.

Though we haven’t seen Drake be a bona fide bell-cow for a full 16-game NFL season yet, he will certainly have his opportunity to be that in Arizona. Johnson was famously traded to Houston for Hopkins and Edmonds is coming off an injury from the season prior. Though Murray will be better in his second season as a starter, look for Drake to still be able to get his own in the ground game.

So in terms of if Drake is here to stay as an RB1 in fantasy football going forward, it does feel he’s more likely to get into the top 10 than to stumble into the late teens. Arizona isn’t getting a Saquon Barkley, an Ezekiel Elliott or a Christian McCaffrey in Drake, but he’ll be the Cardinals’ no-doubt starter for the foreseeable future. He is now a low-end RB1 in most fantasy leagues.