Larry Fitzgerald has made his NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals. The wide receiver holds most of the franchise records after getting drafted in the first round back in 2004. However, while Fitzgerald is easily one of the team's most valuable players, there is a very real chance that he will not be back with the team come 2015. Fitzgerald's contract is a heavy salary cap hit in the coming season putting his future in Arizona in big doubt.
The Cardinals have remained very quiet about their intentions with Fitzgerald. Trade rumors circulated around the wide receiver before the 2014 season began, but things calmed down once the Cardinals started winning games. However, as the end of the football season gets closer, Arizona is well aware they must start thinking about the future and whether or not Fitzgerald is in it.
"We have to make good business decisions," general manager Steve Keim said, via the Cardinals' home site. "I don't think it's any secret that we said all along that it is our intent to have Larry Fitzgerald retire a Cardinal. I don't want to get into it too deep, but with planning purposes and financially, from a cap standpoint and all those sort of things, we have Larry's (cap) number already baked into our numbers. Now, any kind of business decisions moving forward, renegotiations with Larry and that sort of thing, we've had ongoing talks with (agent) Eugene Parker and we will continue to have ongoing talks. But again, the best I can tell you is that it is our intent to keep Larry and make sure he stays a Cardinal the rest of his career."
Fitzgerald is a $23.6 million cap hit in 2015. That will make things very tough for the Cardinals in the offseason if they want to add more pieces to the team that is clearly heading in a strong direction under head coach Bruce Arians. At 31-years-old, Fitzgerald is certainly being overpaid, but he is the face of the franchise which makes the decision tough for the Cardinals. The wide receiver will either likely have to restructure his contract moving forward or risk getting traded.
There will be several teams that will lineup to get Fitzgerald even with his inflated contract. The New England Patriots have been linked to the veteran since it first came out that he might be available. The Patriots would likely have to move on from Danny Amendola or Aaron Dobson, something entirely possible considering the way they have played this year. The Carolina Panthers would ideally like an elite receiver for Cam Newton to work with while the Seattle Seahawks could use one more offensive weapon next season.
