Fantasy football projections, Week 3: 49ers-Cardinals featuring Carlos Hyde, Carson Palmer and John Brown

The Week 3 matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals features teams who were on opposite sides of blowouts last week. We've got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

The 49ers' best player in Week 1 was running back Carlos Hyde, so it's safe to say that fans were holding their breath when he left last week's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers early with an injury. The good news is that Hyde is good to go and should be able to handle a full workload against the Cardinals on Sunday. They've been one of the worst fantasy run defenses in the league through two weeks so far, meaning Hyde's owners could be in for another big day from one of the league's emerging young talents.

If San Francisco is to win in Arizona, though, Hyde can't possibly do it alone. He'll need the help of quarterback Colin Kaepernick to keep the ball moving down the field. Kaepernick hasn't exactly been an elite quarterback since signing a huge extension with the team. That said, he did manage to throw up some huge numbers playing catch-up against the Steelers last week and he could do it again this week against a Cardinals team that blew out the Chicago Bears just seven days ago. Kaepernick may be worth a start based on the fact he may rack up points in garbage time once again.

Anybody who picked up quarterback Carson Palmer in their fantasy league to start the season has to be feeling amazing right now. Palmer has seven touchdown passes in two weeks to go along with a respectable 492 passing yards. That said, he's built those numbers off of the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints respectively... not exactly two of the NFL's juggernauts this season. This week against the San Francisco 49ers, he'll be up against a better defense, but with Palmer firing on all cylinders, fantasy owners will probably lean towards starting him this week and rightfully so. He's earned the opportunity.

One direct beneficiary of Palmer's play is wide receiver John Brown. Brown only has 91 receiving yards on the season, but last week he caught every single pass thrown his way. Larry Fitzgerald is getting older and Michael Floyd has simply disappeared, so it's clear that the Cardinals' wide receiving corps belongs to Brown this season. It's only a matter of time before that starts reflecting in big numbers on the scoreboard.