It looks as if wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald will be staying with the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals wanted Fitzgerald, likely the most beloved player in franchise history and the team’s all-time leading receiver by a wide margin, to take a pay cut to help get the team under next season’s salary cap. Per Kent Somers of Azcentral.com, he was scheduled to make $16 million in salary and bonuses next season, with a $23.6 million salary-cap figure. Somers quotes General Manager Steve Keim as saying the Cardinals project to be about $16 million over the league’s estimated $140 million salary cap next season.
The 31-year-old Fitzgerald, who signed an eight-year contract worth $120 million in 2011, has played all 11 of his NFL seasons with the Cardinals. In 2014, he had his least productive season since his rookie year in 2004, with 63 receptions for 784 yards and just two touchdowns. But the Cardinals had quarterback issues all season, with ideal starter Carson Palmer playing in just six games because of various injuries, including a torn ACL that ended his season.
Palmer is expected to return in time for training camp, per ESPN’s Ed Werder. As Somers notes, in the five games before Palmer’s season-ending injury, Fitzgerald had 31 catches for 391 yards, which if extrapolated over an entire season would amount to close to 100 receptions and more than 1,200 yards.
After spending the first 17 years of his Post career writing and editing, Matt and the printed paper had an amicable divorce in 2014. He's now blogging and editing for the Early Lead and the Post's other Web-based products.
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