There wasn’t much about Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald’s play in 2015 that suggested he’s closing in on the end of the line.
Fitzgerald set a career high with 109 catches, posted his most receiving yards since 2011 and had a spectacular performance as the Cardinals beat the Packers in their playoff opener. He may be turning 33 this summer, but production like that leaves little reason to think that Fitzgerald will have to stop playing when his contract expires after the 2016 season unless he wants to stop playing.
Fitzgerald said on “Burns and Gambo” on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Tuesday that he’ll talk to his family about his future at the end of the season and that he’s “hoping that we can win the Super Bowl this year and it would be no questions asked” about any decision he might make. When asked if winning a ring would draw the curtain on his career, Fitzgerald demurred but suggested that any change to the stability at quarterback in Arizona would lead him to strongly consider other ways to spend his time.
“I would still have to think about it and see where I was at,” Fitzgerald said. “A lot of it’s tied to Carson [Palmer] -- Carson’s playing at a high level. I don’t want to go through any other quarterback situations. It’s been great to have the stability that we have now with the big fella, he’s been playing lights out.”
Fitzgerald has played with a lot of quarterbacks over his 12 seasons with the Cardinals and it’s not surprising that the memories of Max Hall, John Skelton, Kevin Kolb and Matt Leinart color his thoughts about life without Palmer. Should he and Palmer be able to repeat last year’s success, it probably won’t be anything he has to seriously contemplate when it comes to signing up for another year in Arizona.
