Sorry to Disappoint Some of You, but Larry Fitz Looks Like he is Staying in 'Zona.

[Fountain City Blues]

Adam Schefter is reporting that L.Fitzgerald is closing in on a deal with the Cardinals to finish out his career. Tweet should be linked in here in a second.

[MEDIA=twitter]568048103871389696[/MEDIA]

 

[flyerhawk]

His skills have been declining.

He's a good guy and I'm happy for the Cards that he will finish out his career there.

 

[TxHeat]

loyal to a fault. too bad he'll finish his career without a ring.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

loyal to a fault. too bad he'll finish his career without a ring.

I am not so sure about that after this year. The Cardinals are a very scary team if they can keep Palmer upright. It would be less than a shock for me to see the Cardinals get HFA next year.

 

[night]

His skills have been declining.

He's a good guy and I'm happy for the Cards that he will finish out his career there.

Fitzgerald's decline is probably not as pronounced as it seems considering the QB situation in Arizona.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Fitzgerald's decline is probably not as pronounced as it seems considering the QB situation in Arizona.

Hard to tell sometimes. We encountered a similar decline with a lesser WR in Bowe; and generally the thought is at this point it's not so much the QB's (where he produced previous even with no QB) as it is on him. I am not a huge Arizona film guy, so I can't say for sure, but it does seem like he still has plenty of juice left, imo.

 

[SonnyCID]

I am not so sure about that after this year. The Cardinals are a very scary team if they can keep Palmer upright. It would be less than a shock for me to see the Cardinals get HFA next year.

Keeping him healthy may be a tall order. He'll be 36 and coming off another ACL.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Keeping him healthy may be a tall order. He'll be 36 and coming off another ACL.

Stanton certainly seems like he would be worth keeping around for that reason. Probably one of the few teams where a pricey backup QB wouldn't be too bad. They really might want to draft a legit QBotF rather soon, however.

 

[flyerhawk]

I am not so sure about that after this year. The Cardinals are a very scary team if they can keep Palmer upright. It would be less than a shock for me to see the Cardinals get HFA next year.

Well we need to see how the defense holds up with Bowles gone.

Given that they were 1 game away from getting HFA this past season, it shouldn't shock anyone if they get it next year. Although I would say that they were fortunate to be 11-5 last year. They were +11 in scoring differential.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Well we need to see how the defense holds up with Bowles gone.

Given that they were 1 game away from getting HFA this past season, it shouldn't shock anyone if they get it next year. Although I would say that they were fortunate to be 11-5 last year. They were +11 in scoring differential.

True point on the scoring differential, but you kind of have to question how much of that is Stanton and Lindley. Which then of course circles back to Palmer's health; absolutely critical he remains healthy. A healthy QB is always critical, but it's worth emphasizing with this Cardinals team given their result last year.

 

[flyerhawk]

True point on the scoring differential, but you kind of have to question how much of that is Stanton and Lindley. Which then of course circles back to Palmer's health; absolutely critical he remains healthy. A healthy QB is always critical, but it's worth emphasizing with this Cardinals team given their result last year.

Certainly that was a factor. And the Cards had a few quality wins last year, notably their wins over Dallas and Detroit. But they also scraped by in a number of games with unlikely events leading to their victories.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

The beauty of it is.... He is only a 3 mil cap hit. I love this new front office.

 

[night]

Hard to tell sometimes. We encountered a similar decline with a lesser WR in Bowe; and generally the thought is at this point it's not so much the QB's (where he produced previous even with no QB) as it is on him. I am not a huge Arizona film guy, so I can't say for sure, but it does seem like he still has plenty of juice left, imo.

Fitzgerald has gotten at least 1,000 yards every year he has gotten 150+ targets except for one year. Since 2011 his targets have decreased by about 1/3 to about 100 in 2014. Maybe he's not open as often as he used to be but just by looking at his numbers you can tell he's involved in the offense less.

 

[Lonewate44]

The beauty of it is.... He is only a 3 mil cap hit. I love this new front office.

That is Nice...but......It is just kicking the cap hits into the future.......Gonna have to pay the piper eventually

 

[ducky]

The beauty of it is.... He is only a 3 mil cap hit. I love this new front office.

No. You are reading some bad reporting. His cap hit will be SIGNIFICANTLY north of $3 million for this coming season. It obviously is going to free up a ton of cap space but his cap hit is no where near that low. Hell they couldn't have cut him and kept the cap hit that low.

 

[WizardHawk]

I'm happy for both Fitz and the team. Hate this new era where few guys stay with their team through the end of their career.

He should retire as a cardinal. Just wouldn't be right for him to wear any other uniform.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Good for Fitz. Always a feel good story when someone has his whole career with one team.

 

[Davis_Mike]

It's good to see this get done. Even though both the player & the team wanted to get a deal done, you never know how these things turn out when money & pride are involved.

Fitz's cap hit will about $13.35 mil, down from about $26 mil. There is no money being pushed into the future with this deal. Although he does have about $7 mil spread out over years 16-18 from 2014 contract restructure bonus.

 

[night]

I'm happy for both Fitz and the team. Hate this new era where few guys stay with their team through the end of their career.

He should retire as a cardinal. Just wouldn't be right for him to wear any other uniform.

The only other spot he could have gone to where it would have been a good story is Minnesota because he used to be their ball boy.

 

[GNG]

Certainly that was a factor. And the Cards had a few quality wins last year, notably their wins over Dallas and Detroit. But they also scraped by in a number of games with unlikely events leading to their victories.

The Cardinals would have won their division if Palmer hadn't gotten injured.