What’s Next For Larry Fitzgerald?

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For years the Arizona Cardinals have been a moribund National Football League franchise. The Cardinals have not won an NFL Championship since 1947 and they have had huge gaps as far as not making the postseason. The Cardinals have had some great players suit up for them such as Larry Wilson, Dan Dierdorf, and Aeneas Williams who all went on to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But great players alone cannot turn around a bad franchise around and another player that could join these men in that category is current Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The Cards used the third overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft on Fitzgerald who was a consensus All-American in his final year in college at the University of Pittsburgh where he was also won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wide receiver. It didn’t take Fitzgerald that long to get acclimated to the NFL as in his second season in the league he was tops in receptions with 103. That season Fitzgerald also had 1,409 receiving yards and 10 receiving touchdowns as emerged as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.

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Larry Fitzgerald

During his time with the Cardinals, Fitzgerald has shined bright as he has seen his fair share of high and lows. During the 2008 NFL season, Fitzgerald helped the Cards reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. Fitzgerald’s 64-yard touchdown grab with just under three minutes left in the game gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game and the Vince Lombardi Trophy was in their sights, but the Pittsburgh Steelers would prevail in the closing moments of the game. Also during his time with the Cardinals, Fitzgerald has been a part of five teams that lost at least 11 games during the regular season. But through it all Fitzgerald has been the model off consistency at wide receiver as for his career he has tallied 909 receptions, 12,151 receiving yards and 89 receiving touchdowns which are easily tops in Cardinals franchise history. Fitzgerald’s numbers were down this season which wasn’t any fault of his, but more to the fact the Cardinals had some serious issues at the quarterback position.

Carson Palmer entered the season as the Cardinals starting quarterback, but injuries limited him to just six games. The Cardinals were forced to use four different starting quarterbacks this season and in spite of this they were able to secure a wild card berth in the NFC. But in the postseason, the lack of production at the quarterback position hurt the Cards as they only were able to gain 82 total yards of offense in their loss to the Carolina Panthers last Saturday. And with the loss the questions have begun to emerge about Fitzgerald’s future in the desert.

For 2015, Fitzgerald will be set to earn a base salary of $8 million and he has an overall cap number of $23 million which is tough for any team to dedicate to a wide receiver that will be 32-years old this August like he will be. There is always the possibility of the Cardinals restructuring Fitzgerald’s deal, but at this point of his NFL career he has accomplished everything except being a Super Bowl Champion and the quarterback position for the Cards is still a gray area for them as their off-season has begun. Palmer will be coming off of his second ACL surgery on his left knee and it isn’t set in stone that he will be ready to the start of the 2015 regular season as you have to wonder if the team would be willing to go in another direction at the position. Fitzgerald has played with 13 different starting quarterbacks in Arizona and if the team were to go young there, I wouldn’t see him sticking around; especially if he was approached to restructure his contract as well. If the Cardinals were to simply release Fitzgerald in the off-season, he would be free to sign with another team, but it is too early to speculate as to whom that could potentially be.

Fitzgerald wants to win and whatever NFL team that he suits up for next season will have a competitive wide receiver on their hands in him. If Fitzgerald were to go to a potential Super Bowl contender next season he would more than likely be taking a pay cut in order to win, but he brings a ton of experience to a locker room while also being a leader on and off of the football field. It could be a bitter end for Fitzgerald with the Cardinals, but he isn’t the first and he won’t be the last star player in the National Football League to feel the squeeze of the salary cap crunch.

Sources: Pro-football-reference.com, Spotrac.com, Overthecap.com

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By | 2015-01-08T12:25:53+00:00 January 8th, 2015|Categories: National Football League|Tags: , |0 Comments

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