Getty ImagesIt’s been more than a year since receiver Anquan Boldin was traded from the Cardinals to the Ravens. While the retirement of quarterback Kurt Warner has been viewed as the biggest reason for the franchise’s slide in 2010, Kevin Kolb has arrived — but the team is still 1-4.
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald seems to think the problem is the absence of another high-end wideout.
“Here’s the one small thing that everyone forgets about when Kurt was here,” Fitzgerald said, via Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic. “We had this other guy, what was his name? Oh, yeah. Anquan Boldin. I think he made a couple Pro Bowls or something. He was a decent player around these parts. I wasn’t here by myself. I had some talented guys around me.”
Fitzgerald supposedly was smiling as he said it. But plenty of strong messages are delivered without furrowed brows or gnashed teeth.
“Look at Green Bay, they have a plethora of talented guys,” Fitzgerald said. “When you have so many things teams have to worry about defensively, you’re going to get open, you’re going to get the big shots for your offense.
“Right now, teams are saying, ‘Fitzgerald is over here, we’re not going to let him beat us. We’re going to do whatever it takes to hold him down and not allow him to do that.’ In years, past, when I had ‘Q,’ even last year with Steve [Breaston], defenses approached it a little differently. There were times when I could find some [space]. Now those times are few and far between.”
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Andre Roberts, Early Doucet, DeMarco Sampson, Chansi Stuckey, and Stephen Williams. And it makes us wonder whether Fitzgerald will soon be lobbying for the team to sign Terrell Owens.
It also makes us wonder why Fitzgerald signed his new contract without the team first addressing the perceived deficiencies at the position.
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“It also makes us wonder why Fitzgerald signed his new contract without the team first addressing the perceived deficiencies at the position.”
Ummm….Money?
“It also makes us wonder why Fitzgerald signed his new contract without the team first addressing the perceived deficiencies at the position.”
Because as down-to-earth of a guy that Fitz is, it’s tough to turn down $120 million.
Spot on. Although Kolb could carry Warner’s jock on his best day so I hope nobody draws that comparison.
i love Quan! he’s probably the most underrated WR in the NFL.
The tape don’t lie.
Damn all of these guys are cry babies. HE signed a new deal, now he wants to complain about not having any help, There is a salary cap in place and I’m sure his cap numbers will prevent them from going after another top tier receiver. BEsides that they need more help than that.
Fitz is still the best in my book.
You would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to provide a ringing endorsement of Roberts, Doucet, Sampson, Stuckey, and/or Williams.
He’s also missing his Hall of Fame quarterback too.
He should have went the FA route.
Fitz when the Quan and Breaston got shipped off that was your sign to go too Minnesota
Bidwells strike again
Did a football player really just use the word “plethora”?
While the retirement of quarterback Kurt Warner has been viewed as the biggest reason for the franchise’s slide in 2010, Kevin Kolb has arrived — but the team is still 1-5.
Are you implying that Kevin Kolb is as good as Kurt Warner? That’s rich. LMAO
Fitz island out there in AZ
We are seeing torrey smith begin to fulfill your old role in Baltimore Larry!
How about everyone do their jobs? They could try that. Their defense could stop someone or sack someone, that would help. Their o-line could block someone and give Kolb time to find someone or let a play develop. Their RBs could make a play or 2.
“Fitz” seems like a good guy, but WRs always have this perception that teams should be built around them. It gets annoying considering all that has to happen first to even get the WR the ball.
Fitz is right, but as a leader of that team, he should not be throwing his teammates under the bus
Andre Johnson doesn’t need anyone opposite him to keep defenses from shutting him down. Fitzgerald is the highest paid WR in the NFL … he needs to make more plays and make fewer excuses. If he’s looking for pity, he’s barking up the wrong tree.
He’s not being a crybaby, he was asked a questions and he gave an honest answer. He is clearly smiling in the video when he was talking to Bickley, and was being up front about why it was easier to get him the ball a couple years back…As for why he would re-sign, almost anybody would find it awfully hard to turn down $120 million no matter what the circumstances are at the #2 WR position with your particular ball club. Let’s be real here, which is all Larry was doing when he gave his answer. So many people say that Kurt was the offense (and he was the MOST important part) but they are so quick to forget that with Fitz, Anquan, and Breaston we had 3 – 1,000 yard + receivers on the same squad in the same season. Many pundits at the time said we had the best receiving corps in all of pro football….It was pick your poison because at the time, you couldn’t cover them all and everybody knows that a Hall of Fame QB surely knew how to find the open receiver and find him quickly and often!
The Cardinals organization is well-aware that they could use some help opposite Fitz, so I believe saying what he did is very minimally beneficial to anyone. Larry comes off as a superstar scoffing at the limited abilities of his beloved teammates while those beloved teammates get to revel in a collective feeling of inadequacy. Go team.
Newsflash Fitz, when you hamstring an already cheapskate team with a contract that would make even a franchise QB blush, you aren’t going to get a lot of help. How about trimming off 15 million so the Cards could have kept Breaston for starters? If you are really worth 120 million dollars, it shouldn’t matter if teams are triple covering you, you better be producing otherwise it’s blatantly obvious you are overpaid.
I don’t care how good he is, giving that big of a contract to a wide receiver (especially when you don’t have a good quarterback) is dumb. Cards would have better served trading the guy……..oh wait, they stupidly put in no-franchise tag and trade refusal clauses in his contract, LOL. What good is a top notch receiver if you can’t even get him the football?
He probably misses having a consistent running game now that Tim Hightower is gone and Edgerrin James is a distant memory.
Talk about a no-name lineup of receivers behind Fitz. Who are these guys? No defense would be scared by that group.
That team’s talent core was decimated after their superbowl run. The AZ Cardinals have become the NFL’s farm team…a la the Oakland A’s. Moneyball don’t work in the NFL, Bidwell.
Anquan Boldin: 23 rec. 354 yds. 1TD
Early Doucet: 21 rec. 309 yds. !TD
Way to throw your teammates under the bus, Larry!
I think it has everything to do with Kurt Warner being gone.
The simple fact is that good quarterbacks put receivers in the pro bowl not the other way around.
Watch “A Football Life : Kurt Warner” on nfl.com. his spat with fitz about him wanting to top the 100 yards is all you need to see to realize what Warner did to push that franchise farther than its ever been. Now that hes gone theyre back to their old ways.
Fitz is the K.G. of football, sign huge contract and then bitch theres no one on the team. He fails to realize with that contract your supposed to carry the franchise. Maybe hes not the 100 million dollar man Arizona thought he was.
Hey Arizona, how is your 63 million dollar QB workin out for ya? LMAO.
Alex Smith >>>> Kevin Kolb
Stay classy, Larry.
Way to completely throw your teammates under the bus.
….and to think that the Cards could have had Brandon Lloyd for a saguaro cactus.
Fitz, perhaps you shouldnt have re-up’d with AZ if you are frustrated with the personnel ? Oh yeah the money thing, well ya want that too huh ?,,,,shut up & play
Fitz should have came to New England to play with Tom Brady.
“That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Andre Roberts, Early Doucet, DeMarco Sampson, Chansi Stuckey, and Stephen Williams.”
Umm, do you realize what you just said. Doucet is the only guy there I’ve even heard of and that’s because I remember him at LSU.
Its ok Fitzgerald….All you need to do is find an actual team that will play….Maybe if you joined the Texans, or maybe the Raiders, maybe even the Titans…..you could get something worth mentioning
@capslockkey: After a year of Derek Anderson, any QB is bound to look like Dan Marino.
Although… Levi Brown is trying his hardest to make sure they all look like Derek Anderson.
I wish people would stop making a big deal about this guy. HE IS NOT ELITE. GET OVER IT. he had ONE great season and thats it. People blame it on he had no qb…guess what..neither did calvin johnson for 3 years and he still managed to put up reaaaal good stats. Now he blames it on not having another good reciever…i mean seriouslly dude. You cant have everything. This guy wants a perfect team with perfect qb and perfect recievers so he can get single coverage all game and look soo awsome. Well welcome to the club. This guy is not fast and is not a spectacular route runner. But he is good. And i will say he might have the best hands in the NFL. But still. he is not elite. And teh excuses have to stop. Larry Fitz is a very good reciever. Not great. But very good.
Can’t have your cake. If you’re the one getting paid the total of 3 great WRs, can’t complain when the team doesn’t sign a sidekick. Sorry Larry
I was sick to my stomach when they traded Boldin. All that guy did was come into camp as a second round pick his rookie year and dominate. Nobody that went to that training camp in Flagstaff came back with singing the praises of Anquan, and he never failed to deliver during his time in the desert. Many a Cards fan will tell you that he was the beating heart of this team for many seasons, laying his body on the line every time he went over the middle to make a catch, and opening the outside lanes up for Larry Fitz. We haven’t had a true #2 since he left. The Cards (just like after the 1998 season when we got rid of Larry Centers, Jamir Miller, etc.) let the core of that Super Bowl team move on. It’s no wonder the Cards have fallen so fast. The new stadium is a cash cow and the Bidwells (as usual) are more content to watch their money pile up than actually pay the players that make them successful every 18 years or so. Sucks to be a Cards fan…
Wait, I though Korn on the Kolb was supposed to make them the “dominant” team in the NFC West? 4-12 again this season, just as I predicted.
@steelers4385 — can you please clarify which of these seasons qualifies as Larry’s ONE great season? I can’t seem to figure it out.
2005 – 103 catches/1,403 yards/10 TDs
2006 – 69/946/6
2007 – 100/1,409/10
2008 – 96/1,431/12
2009 – 97/1,032/13
2010 – 90/1,137/6
Anyone who says Larry Fitzgerald isn’t an elite receiver needs to get their heads examined.
It’s funny if he would have left Arizona people would have called him greedy, now that he stayed people call him stupid. Make up your minds people.
People in Baltimore use the word plethora. Maybe he could come east and rejoin Anquan? I have trade, Lee Evans for Larry Fitzgerald.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
Would you say Green Bay has a plethora of talented wide receivers?
Larry: Ken, would you say we have
a plethora of wide receivers?
Ken: A what?
Larry: A plethora.
Ken: Oh, yes Larry, you have a plethora.
Larry: Ken, what is a “plethora”
Ken: Why?
Larry: You told me I have a plethora and I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone…he has a plethora…and find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.
Ken: Forgive me, Larry. I know that I, Ken Whisenhunt, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that, once again…you are angry at something else…and are looking to take it out on me?
You could have been one of those receivers in GB Larry with your best friend Greg Jennings
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawy.. Lol go 49ers!
bossplayer213 says:Oct 20, 2011 2:01 PM
Hey Arizona, how is your 63 million dollar QB workin out for ya? LMAO.
Alex Smith >>>> Kevin Kolb
_____________________________
At this point, that’s true of Tavaris Jackson as well.
Only so much receiver money to go around Fitz….you took it all.
He has 120 million reasons not to be sad.
I like fitz,and in no way think he is a punk or a whiner but…. I think this a big part of what is wrong with sports and life in general.When he says look at what they are doing in g.b. they have alot of weapons over there.Stop worrying about what other people have,and do your job to the best of your ability.Only one team wins the super bowl every year and larry….sorry to tell you if i had to bet on it your one and only chance has come and gone (no fault of yours).You still make a boatload of $ and have a far better life than 99% of us i know its tough being doubled and all but somehow (wake up,leave your mansion,drive your overpriced car to your practice facility)you can fight through these “tough” times.I hope it all works out for you.
Fitz, if you miss Boldin so much maybe you can cry and whine like he did until they ship you out.
He re-signed for the money and partly because he thought Kolb was gonna be the savior. How is that working out? It has nothing to do with Boldin or whomever is playing opposite of him. Kevin Kolb was a fluke that Andy Reid hyped up to dupe someone out of draft picks and the Bidwill’s took the bait, hook, line and sinker.
Wait, why would you take that kind of contract and then complain about being the only playmaker? There’s only so much money to go around, Larry. He had every opportunity to choose his next team but he decided to take the offer on the table.
Breaston and Boldin are both gone because the Cards couldn’t afford to tie up money in them and still have enough to re-sign Fitzgerald for the money he would have wanted.
I was trying to think of the other receivers on Arizona’s roster. After seeing them listed, I still can’t think of the other receivers on Arizona’s roster.
Too much money for one guy. They see what we see and We haven’t had a true #2 since he left. The Cards STILLthe Cards aren’t pursuing a #2. They are who we thought we they were.
As for, “We haven’t had a true #2 since he left. The Cards (just like after the 1998 season when we got rid of Larry Centers, Jamir Miller, etc.) let the core of that Super Bowl team move on. NOT TRUE.
Center’s wasn’t let go. He, like vets before him, was asked to take a paycut. He got pissed and left.
lol!!! I wonder if the salary cap has anything to do with it. Probably not, as the Cardinals are notoriously cheap anyway – and why compete the sale of Fitz jerseys with any other player jersey? Sure, he was better with Boldin on the roster. But they couldn’t afford to pay Boldin standard pro bowl WR pay, the other 25 54 players on the roster AND Larry Fitz’s crazy salary. The best thing they could have done was let Fitz go and steal 1/4 of some other team’s roster and then pay Boldin, the rest of the team and a cheaper replacement their fare salary. Football is a team sport, and when one guy takes up that much of the salary cap, his name better be Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Funny thing is that Fitz makes more money than Brady. I guess some teams know how to manage the budget better than others.