The Seattle Seahawks have had a full bye week to try to draw up schemes to make it so Russell Wilson has plenty of time to throw the football or make positive things happen. He's got a tough task ahead against a solid Arizona Cardinals defense, but he might have an even tougher fantasy matchup against Carson Palmer coming on Football Night in America.
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Wilson has been sacked 31 times this year, and the only good thing that we can say about that is that at least sacks don't count against his fantasy football total.
Still, the lack of time Wilson has had in the pocket has forced him into more bad throws than he usually makes and has cut down on his ability to make big plays with both his arm and his legs. The fourth-year man from Wisconsin by way of N.C. State has thrown more than one touchdown in just one game this year, and he has yet to rush for a touchdown.
Prorated over 16 games, Wilson is on a pace for 3,700 passing yards, 18 passing touchdowns and 600 rushing yards. Sure, it's more passing yards, but it's also two fewer passing touchdowns, six fewer rushing touchdowns, and perhaps more importantly to Seattle's cause, five more picks.
The end result for Wilson hasn't been pretty at just 18.7 fantasy points per game, though it isn't like we've ever really seen him explode. Even in his best season last year, Wilson only averaged 22.2 fantasy points per game.
What we're used to getting out of Wilson though, is consistency. Even in this year when his running game hasn't been as great and his offensive line has been atrocious, Wilson has thrown for at least 200 yards in every game and has found the end zone at least once, too.
Palmer meanwhile, is a bit of a boom or bust proposition. He's had two games this year in which he failed to get to 200 passing yards, and he has two games with at least as many picks as touchdown passes.
That said, the raw numbers for Palmer are just flat out better across the board from a fantasy perspective. The vet is averaging 25.3 fantasy points per game, and he's doing all of this thanks to the fact that he has an outstanding receiving corps headlined by future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald and an oncoming Michael Floyd.
Palmer's history working with Bruce Arians is excellent, as he now has 33 TDs against just nine picks in 14 games under center in this offense. If he can keep up that sort of pace in this game against a Seattle defense he and the rest of the world have struggled against historically, there is a real opportunity here to back Arizona's pivot as perhaps only a short favorite against Wilson.
The only fear we have of backing Palmer here is the fact that the Seahawks have had a bye week to work out some of their problems. They haven't allowed a touchdown in consecutive games of any kind, and their secondary seems to be figuring some things out now that Kam Chancellor is back and is getting regular reps at practice. Having that bye is only going to make things more cohesive, and that's a scary proposition for Palmer going against the Legion of Boom, particularly if he can't get a ton of time to throw the ball before Michael Bennett and the likes are on his back.
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