Official: Larry Fitzgerald is Coming Back

MadCardDisease

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Insanity!
Anyone that takes Fitz over Edelman has no clue

Insanity is trying to compare apples to oranges.

Edelman has played with the greatest QB of all time, greatest Coach of all time and the same offense for his entire career.

Fitzgerald is with his second new offense, second Rookie HC, and seconde Rookie QB in just the last two years.

Trying to compare those two is ridiculous
 

Syracusecards

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really happy he’s coming back, just wish he wore #6 so he’d keep coming back for $6m instead....
 

phillycard

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Context is important. Looking at $11 million alone does not allow for true analysis. Here is a break down of what his Cap number was and what that number was in correlation to the cap number. For this year, I used the estimated number of $198 million against $11.25 million to match his salary from last year. His percent went down is the lowest since 2006/2007 when we was still on a rookie deal. 2010 was the uncapped year, so no percent available. I'm ok with 5.5% of the cap on a 45 man roster (only top 45 salaries count) for a guy who is still productive and a great leader on the team.

Year Cap Number Percent of Cap
2004 $2,300,000 2.90%
2005 $3,108,750 3.60%
2006 $6,121,250 6.00%
2007 $5,473,334 5.00%
2008 $6,993,334 6.00%
2009 $10,893,332 8.90%
2010 $10,400,000 --
2011 $19,250,000 16.00%
2012 $14,500,000 12.00%
2013 $10,250,000 8.30%
2014 $8,600,000 6.50%
2015 $10,850,000 7.60%
2016 $15,850,000 10.20%
2017 $15,850,000 9.50%
2018 $16,850,000 9.50%
2019 $11,250,000 6.00%
2020 $11,250,000 5.50%


bankybruce breaking out the math!! LOL!!
 

RugbyMuffin

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Holy crap YOU’RE DRIVING THE WRONG WAY, man! You don’t pay for past performance!


And yet, everyone gets paid that way.

I will not blame Fitzgerald for having put himself in a position of value and leverage with this organization.

Best way to argue not to pay Fitzgerald, is to successfully bring in wide receiver talent, and have them beat Fitzgerald out for a receiver position.

He is EASILY the 2nd best WR on the team as it stands right now, and I am trying to be generous and not say he is the best WR on the roster. Partially because I am not going to debate how good/bad/unavailable Christian Kirk is.

I can strawman the HELL out of this debate by saying it is a waste to complain about signing Larry Fitzgerald since it will probably be the most effective move this organization does all offseason with Keim at the helm.

We let Fitzgerald walk, and then what? Expect Steve Keim to replace him with a suitable wide receiver, and then use the saved money on a player that will help the team ?

The past says Keim will squander the money, and bring in another undersized, over valued wide receiver who won't get off the line, and won't get separation.
 

RugbyMuffin

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Soooo

Do you think Kirk finally overtakes him as the #1 next year or no?

Nope.

Kirk has yet to play 16 games, and any injury problems seems to effect his skills to the point where he becomes a non-factor on the field.
 

82CardsGrad

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Doug from Doug & Wolf was making a pretty strong case for Larry being the best WR all-time... ahead of Rice. His case was based upon using the fact that during Rice's 16 years with the 9ers, he had two HOF QB's tossing to him. Larry had Warner...and then Palmer who will not be a HOFer...
So if you took the years that Fitz had Warner and Palmer as his QB, and compared that to the 16 years Rice had in SF, the averages stack up quite well:

Fitz: 94 receptions, 1,142 yards and 8 TD's

Rice: 80 receptions, 1,203 yards and 11 TD's

Loads of other variables of course... but, the argument can certainly be made.
 

CardsSunsDbacks

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Doug from Doug & Wolf was making a pretty strong case for Larry being the best WR all-time... ahead of Rice. His case was based upon using the fact that during Rice's 16 years with the 9ers, he had two HOF QB's tossing to him. Larry had Warner...and then Palmer who will not be a HOFer...
So if you took the years that Fitz had Warner and Palmer as his QB, and compared that to the 16 years Rice had in SF, the averages stack up quite well:

Fitz: 94 receptions, 1,142 yards and 8 TD's

Rice: 80 receptions, 1,203 yards and 11 TD's

Loads of other variables of course... but, the argument can certainly be made.
What Fitz would have done with better QBs is unfortunately nothing more than speculation. What Rice did is set in stone in the record books. Also while Rice did have better QBs (also had Gannon in Oakland) he also played in a era that wasn't as pass friendly as the league has been through most of Fitz' career.
 

slanidrac16

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Not really... just responding to where you took the convo.
But rather than continue to drag this out, quite simply: I believe Fitz is more valuable to his team than Edelman is to his.
I think Fritz’s #’s over the recent past compare remarkably well with those of Edelman, the difference in age and wear & tear not withstanding.
I believe the expectations for Fitz to continue to put up potentially team leading stats in 2020 is quite real, particularly with respect to catches and TD’s.
I believe the intangibles strongly favor Fitz (blocking, leadership, face of franchise and community engagement).
Ball all that up and for me, paying that guy $11 million is extremely well worth it, will not hinder the team in any way from doing what it needs to in order to improve the roster, and, if Mike B were paying him more, I’d still be 100% behind it.
You feel differently... bueno for you! [emoji106]
I don’t think Edelman ever ran over KJ Wright or knocked Joey Bosa on his ass.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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And yet, everyone gets paid that way.

I will not blame Fitzgerald for having put himself in a position of value and leverage with this organization.

Best way to argue not to pay Fitzgerald, is to successfully bring in wide receiver talent, and have them beat Fitzgerald out for a receiver position.

He is EASILY the 2nd best WR on the team as it stands right now, and I am trying to be generous and not say he is the best WR on the roster. Partially because I am not going to debate how good/bad/unavailable Christian Kirk is.

I can strawman the HELL out of this debate by saying it is a waste to complain about signing Larry Fitzgerald since it will probably be the most effective move this organization does all offseason with Keim at the helm.

We let Fitzgerald walk, and then what? Expect Steve Keim to replace him with a suitable wide receiver, and then use the saved money on a player that will help the team ?

The past says Keim will squander the money, and bring in another undersized, over valued wide receiver who won't get off the line, and won't get separation.
You missed the entire point of our conversation.

But aside from that, no, you don’t pay for past performance. You pay for projected performance. One of the best indicators for athletes may be past performance but that has to be tempered by things like injury and age. And those tend to work in opposite to one and other. A relatively young but injured player should cause you to look not at recent history but some time back to see what he might perform at once fully healed. For a old (not older, but actually old, like Fitz for wr) player you just look at last season. Going back any further likely results in you relying on stale data that’s no longer reflective of what you can expect moving forward.
 

DumboD

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I can't see complaining about a one-year contract for 11 million. Contrary to David Johnson, Larry is anything if not consistent. We can expect another solid season from him. But he's not suddenly going to get the kind of separation that makes him an elite WR again. But... yes, blocking is important. Staying healthy is important. Making the tough catches
in traffic is important. Not doing something stupid off the field is also important. So we know what we're getting and the Cards need him for next season. But a major injury could end it as well as young WRs suddenly blossoming into solid NFL WRs. But a one year deal is not a big risk. And it lets him decide when to leave without the Cards cutting him if he shows a decline in the middle of a multi-year deal. And, face the facts...Julian Edelman is not the face of the Patriots any more than Wes Welker was. So I think it's a good deal for both Larry and the Cardinals. But I hope he will not stay around just to set some new NFL records. I expect those records are more important to the fans anyway than they are to Larry. He's already a solid HOFer even if he doesn't catch a pass next season. And we can assume that financially he will be just fine...better off than the vast majority of NFL players.
 

bankybruce

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Soooo

Do you think Kirk finally overtakes him as the #1 next year or no?

No! Kirk will always be a #2 on a good team. If he's our number 1. We are in trouble. Ideally we find a #1 to replace Fitz and next season that transition starts with Kirk being the #3.
 

Cbus cardsfan

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Larry’s not an 11million/year WR anymore. But I understand the Cards giving it to him.

Most contracts are based on future projected performance, not the past. But I don’t hate it. Look at the other Cards WRs. They’re not spending a lot of cap space in that WR room.
 

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Just think of the career playoff records he would hold if he had played for a team that consistently made the playoffs. He always stepped up in important games. His playoff performance during our Super Bowl run was one for the ages.

If you want to see a great example of "game speed" watch his last TD in the SB.
 
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Cheesebeef

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Most impressive playoff run by a wide receiver ever, no question...

the fact that that run didn't end in a championship is a travesty of greatness. It probably would have gone down in history as one of the greatest title runs any player ever had. WE all recognize it as such even though he didn't win the title, but i think it astounding greatness probably gets lost to the majority of people.

he carried that team. it was ridiculous. my favorite call of the entire playoffs was the first TD off the flea-flicker.

"He throws it up to Fitz who's double covered... IT DOESN'T MATTER! TOUCHDOWN!" - the rest as they say was history.
 

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