Fantasy Football: 6 Arizona Cardinals Who Are Killing Your Team

If you are like me, you are knee-deep in some intense and sometimes downright nasty fantasy football battles in the home stretch of the season.

However, there is nothing more infuriating than to have fantasy players who should be performing but fail to do so. There are some notable busts this year (Chris Johnson, DeAngelo Williams) and some others who are performing quite well (Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady).

But in the back of your mind, you couldn't care less who is doing well. They don't stand out to you right now. It's the good-for-nothing bums who we don't forget. They're the ones who you think will be your studs and turn out to be the reason you lose each week.

Let's look at the Arizona Cardinals players who are killing your fantasy teams.

Kevin Kolb

If you are stupid enough to have Kevin Kolb as your starting quarterback, then I blame you. But perhaps you missed your fantasy draft and your auto-draft didn't work as you planned. Lo and behold, you landed Kolb.

Whatever the case may be, if Kolb is your starting quarterback, you are awfully upset right now. It seems like for every touchdown he throws, he has an interception and a couple of nasty fumbles to eradicate it. His best game was the first one of the season, but the arrow has gone down on his stock quicker than RIM's.

He's not comfortable in the pocket and horrible on the run. Today, his 153 yards and one touchdown were accompanied by the nasty interception that we've come to know and love.

If you have to have Kolb match points with the likes of Brees, Rodgers, Philip Rivers or downright anybody, you better have some good wide receivers and running backs to offset your almost certain quarterback deficiency.

Larry Fitzgerald

This may be a tad of a stretch because I can't blame Fitzgerald for his performance thus far. Kolb has thrown a couple of good touchdowns to him, but beyond Week 2 and 3, has Fitzgerald performed as you expected?

Weren't he and Kolb supposed to be the new dynamic duo?

That duo has looked more like a flop than anything this year. We have seen Fitzgerald drop a couple of passes this year, which is very uncharacteristic of him, but we have not seen Kolb give him the attention he needs either.

Fitzgerald had three receptions today and four receptions each against Pittsburgh and Minnesota. But fantasy owners who drafted Fitzgerald expected more in the range of eight to 10 catches a game, which he has only done once this year.

What does this leave you fantasy owners to do with him? Certainly, he can't be dropped, but the next three out of four games are on the road. The Cardinals don't play well on the road. Don't expect too much from Fitzgerald in the next few weeks.

Andre Roberts

Ouch. Does anybody care that Andre Roberts is technically the "starter" opposite Larry Fitzgerald? I sure don't, and I imagine since most don't have Roberts on their fantasy team outside of oceanic-deep fantasy leagues.

Before the season began, many predicted Roberts to have a breakout year. Fitzgerald would be double-covered most of the time, so you had the option of having Roberts be the next go-to guy, especially with a quarterback that could get him the ball.

How futile has Roberts' play been? For the entire year, he has 133 yards. Steve Smith had more yards (178) in his first game of the year.

Now, unlike Fitzgerald, Roberts has been to blame for the majority of his bad play. He has dropped numerous balls in crucial situations and has not been a dependable receiver at all.

If you had him in your fantasy league, he's probably been dropped. If you still have him on your roster, let him go and pick up someone more reliable.

Cardinals Defense

I'll admit it. I did take a chance on the Cardinals defense at the beginning of the year. The defense scored nine touchdowns last year and seemed to always get me points.

I bought into the new system that Ray Horton was bringing in from his Pittsburgh Steelers days. I believed he would instill a new mentality to a defense that needed to strip off the personality and strap on a new one.

Suffice it to say, I dropped the Cardinals defense after Cam Newton shredded it for over 400 yards Week 1.

But some of you kept the Cardinals defense on your team, and it's to you that I want to ask one question: What were you thinking?

The point totals that the Cardinals defense has given up through eight weeks read as follows: 21, 22, 13, 31, 34, 32, 30. The last four games are especially alarming. The play of the secondary is horrific, and the opposition continuously picks on both corners. There is rarely pressure on the quarterback, and there are no turnovers being produced.

The Cardinals defense can't be trusted, and neither can your fantasy swag if you still have them on your team.

Jay Feely

I love Twitter, and judging by the stats, you do too. Jay Feely loves Twitter too. I'd call him the most active Cardinal player on Twitter prior to September 24, 2011.

Feely said he wouldn't get back on Twitter until the Cardinals' losing streak was over.

We may not hear from Feely 'til the new year.

If you picked up Feely for your fantasy team, he's another guy that may be killing you. He is a great kicker, but this year has been tough for fantasy points for Feely. He's only had nine field goal attempts this year, and he's already missed three, which is how many he missed in all of 2010.

What's sad is that if he had made two of those, the Cardinals would have beat Seattle.

Again, we can't blame Feely for his dramatic drop in field goal attempts. The Cardinals' anemic offense has done nothing to help him out.

But if you expected big points from Feely this year, it hasn't happened.

Fortunately, there are better kicking options for fantasy, and until the Cardinals work out their offensive issues, you may pass on Feely altogether.

I'm sure Feely would have something to say about this on Twitter, but—well, you know.

Honorable Mention: Beanie Wells

Here, fantasy owners, is your saving grace for having Cardinals on your team. Beanie Wells has more than impressed this year, and the biggest surprise may be how he has handled adversity.

The knee injury that would normally keep Wells grounded has been a little more than a mosquito bite as far as preventing him from playing. Sure, he missed the Seattle game, but today, when most people thought he wouldn't be able to go, he did.

And go he did.

He ran for 83 yards and a touchdown against one of the best run defenses in the league. He has seven touchdowns this year and is a must-start at the running back position even though his team is a laughable 1-6.

No fantasy owner has been disappointed with the way Wells has run the ball. He's a bruising, punishing running back. The question is, why don't the Cardinals use him to close out games more?

One thing that may be of concern to fantasy owners today is something Wells said after the disappointing loss to the Ravens. Wells said after the game that his knee injury is "probably going to be an all-year thing."

Fantasy owners will have to monitor Wells every week as he will be day-to-day most of the time.