2022 Fantasy Upside
After losing Christian Kirk in free agency, the Cardinals bolstered their receiving corps by trading for Marquise Brown during the first round of April's draft. The move reunites Brown with his former college quarterback Kyler Murray. Brown caught 91 passes for 1,008 yards with six touchdowns in 2021. No Cardinals receiver had over 1,000 yards last season. Kirk was the closest with 982 yards on 77 receptions. Four days after the trade, the NFL announced it had suspended new teammate DeAndre Hopkins for the first six games of 2022. For a few days, it looked like Murray was going to have one of the best one-two combinations in football. Instead, Brown will be asked to play a greater role. Fortunately, as ESPN.com's Josh Weinfuss noted, one hope in trading for Brown was that, should Hopkins go down again, they would have Brown to fill his role. Now, with that situation a reality, it's fortuitous that Murray has a rapport with Brown. The two were college teammates at Oklahoma in 2017 and 2018, the latter of which saw Brown accumulate 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns on 75 catches.
2022 Fantasy Downside
Brown will have an opportunity to establish himself as the team's WR1 early on but Hopkins' return will be a limiting factor for his season-long upside.
2022 Bottom Line
Brown finished as WR22 last season, but there are some numbers worth noting. Per ESPN's Mike Clay, Brown was 11th in fantasy points per game in 11 outings with Lamar Jackson, but 67th in five games while Jackson was out. So quarterback play will be critical and his familiarity with Murray will matter. As much as we might still prefer to pay WR3 prices for the former Raven, expecting him to return full WR2 value isn't a reach and paying for it isn't unreasonable.