Tyrann Mathieu isn’t the only Cardinals player to get a new contract this week.
Quarterback Carson Palmer and receiver Larry Fitzgerald each signed one-year extensions, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. Details have not yet been reported (leaked); without them, it’s impossible to know whether they are “real” extensions or whether the Cardinals put pen to paper in order to avoid speculation and/or media inquiries regarding the chances that Palmer (who had been signed through 2017) and Fitzgerald (who had been signed through 2016) were entering their final season with the team.
Indeed, Schefter set up his tweet regarding the new contracts by suggesting that these new contracts kill any speculation that Palmer won’t be employed by the Cardinals for three more years and that Fitzgerald won’t be in Arizona for at least two more years. While it’s possible they’ll be there in 2017 and beyond, it’s currently impossible to know for sure.
Case in point: After another quarterback had a six-turnover meltdown in a Cardinals-Panthers playoff game nearly eight years ago, he received a five-year extension (with $20 million guaranteed) that ostensibly bound him to Carolina through 2014. And the next season after the extension was signed ended up being Jake Delhomme’s last with the Panthers.
As to Fitzgerald, speculation already had begun that he could return home to Minnesota after the 2016 season, finishing his career in a new stadium with a team that currently is on the upswing. If Fitzgerald decides after 2016 that he wants to do just that, does anyone really think the Cardinals would say no?
UPDATE 4:04 p.m. ET: The Cardinals have announced the extensions, continuing the time-honored tradition of picking a reporter and leaking the news to him five minutes early in an effort to curry favor. #salty.
