Emari Demercado

Cardinals RB Trey Benson (ankle) is out for Sunday's game vs. the Panthers. With RB Emari Demercado on IR, Arizona is down to RB DeeJay Dallas behind RB James Conner. Expect another busy outing for Conner this weekend against Carolina's league-worst RB defense.

Cardinals RB Trey Benson (ankle) did not practice on Wednesday. RB Emari Demercado landed on IR last week, so Arizona would be down to DeeJay Dallas as its No. 2 RB if Benson can't play vs. the Panthers this weekend. That'd mean a very busy day for RB James Conner.

Benson sprained an ankle in Week 15 and passing-down specialist Emari Demercado (back) was recently placed on injured reserve. If Benson is unable to play, James Conner will again handle a high-volume rushing workload while dominating the two-minute drill and split splitting third- and fourth-and-long situations with DeeJay Dallas.

We do not yet know the injury's severity but passing-down specialist Emari Demercado was already sidelined by a back injury and was fully unable to practice or play in Week 15. James Conner could have a monstrous Week 16 workload against the Panthers. Fantasy managers should closely monitor the Cardinals' practice reports.

Even with fellow backup Emari Demercado out, Benson didn't see an uptick in work. James Conner out-touched Benson 21-5 and fourth-stringer DeeJay Dallas tallied four attempts in garbage time. Benson has topped out at five touches over his past four games, keeping him off the fantasy radar in all redraft formats heading into Week 16.