The notion that Larry Fitzgerald’s one-year extension guarantees he’ll play for the Cardinals beyond the current year is far from a lock. Based on the terms of the contract, 2016 could still be the final season that the 2004 first-round pick spends in Arizona.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the extension is worth $11 million in 2017, and that it’s guaranteed for injury only.
As a practical matter, it’s a free disability policy for Fitzgerald, guaranteeing him $11 million in the event he suffers a career-ending injury in 2016. It also secures for the Cardinals the option of bringing him back in 2017, at $11 million. It hardly means he’ll definitely be back after 2016, or that he won’t end his career playing for a team that would be in a position to give him a more prominent role, and possibly more money.
The extension likely was intended to avoid the potential distractions coming from what could be Fitzgerald’s final season, the second of a two-year, fully-guaranteed $22 million deal that he signed in 2015. Whatever the outcome, Fitzgerald playing for the Cardinals in 2017 is no more certain than Fitzgerald not playing at all or Fitzgerald playing for someone else, even with the extension.
