WR J.J. Nelson - Arizona Cardinals

5-10, 156

Born: 4-24-1992

College: UAB

Drafted: Round 5, pick 2015

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Photo: Matt Kartozian, US Presswire

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Week 14: vs Detroit Lions

All WR vs DET

FBG says: Great matchup. Despite the Cardinals upsetting the Packers in Green Bay 20-17, Josh Rosen had little to do with the victory for Arizona. Rosen was 11 for 26 for 149 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. It was the third consecutive game that Rosen has failed to reach 150 yards passing, and his 42.3% completion percentage was the second lowest in his nine starts. While the Cardinals are not the most talented group at wide receiver and tight end, Rosen has not made much progress since being handed the starting gig. Coming out of college, Rosen was tabbed as an accurate passer (and average arm strength) with good pocket poise and anticipation, so it is not a good sign that he has completed only 54.2% of his passes, which ranks second to last among quarterbacks with at least 100 passes thrown. Rosen's lack of production makes it impossible to trust any Cardinals pass catches from week to week. Larry Fitzgerald has caught five or more passes only three times in Rosen's 11 starts, which pales in comparison to last season where had 12 games of five or more catches. Fitzgerald does have five touchdowns in his last six games though and faces off against a Lions secondary this week that has allowed 16 touchdowns to opposing wide receivers this year. Promising rookie wide receiver Christian Kirk was placed on injured reserve with a broken foot, and standout left guard Mike Iupati was also moved to injured reserve with a knee injury. Chad Williams is next up in line after Kirk, but he is questionable for this week after missing the Cardinals week 13 matchup against Green Bay, so Arizona will have to look to JJ Nelson and Trent Sherfield for depth at wide receiver. While the Lions run defense has become one of the better units in the league, their passing defense has been a source of embarrassment for Detroit. They rank as the 12th best unit in terms of passing yards allowed per game (234.8 yards per game), but that is only telling a small part of the story, as they also have the second worst touchdown to interception ratio in the league, giving up 25 passing touchdowns to only five interceptions. Opposing quarterbacks are completing 67.6% of their passes against the Lions secondary (7th worst in the league), and they have allowed nine different quarterbacks to throw for multiple touchdowns, with seven of those quarterbacks throwing for two or more touchdowns without an interception. Darius Slay had been a matchup problem for opposing wide receivers in year's past, but he has been mediocre at best this year. Compounding the problem at cornerback has been Teez Tabor, who as a second-round pick in 2017, was someone the team had high hopes for pairing alongside Slay. That was nothing more than wishful thinking though, as Tabor has been consistently targeted by opposing quarterbacks, and it has gotten so bad that the Lions were forced to bench him the last two weeks against the Bears and the Rams. Tabor is the only cornerback in the league who has played at least 20% of his team's snaps and allowed a perfect quarterback rating (158.3) on the balls thrown his way. This unit is challenging the Bucs and the Falcons as the worst secondary in the league, and their only reprieve is that they face Josh Rosen this week, who has the second-worst completion percentage in the league among starting quarterbacks and has yet to pass for 150+ yards in each of his last three games.

Recent Stats and Projections

WEEK	OPP		oSNAP	RSH	YD	TD	TARG	REC	YD	TD	FumL	Pts
10	at KC		20	1	-10	0	1	0	0	0	0	-1
11	vs OAK		17	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
12	at LAC		18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	at GB		12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	vs DET		0	1	-5	0	7	3	43	0	0	3.8
14	vs DET	PROJ-Dodds	*	0	*	*		1	*	*	*	*
14	vs DET	PROJ-Tremblay	*	0	*	*		2	*	*	*	*
14	vs DET	PROJ-Bloom	*	0	*	*		1	*	*	*	*