With a revised contract that dropped his 2014 cap number from $18 million to $9 million, Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald ensured that he’d spend another year with the team. The corresponding increase in his 2015 cap number to $23.6 million could make the coming season Fitzgerald’s last season in Arizona.
At the Scouting Combine, Cardinals G.M. Steve Keim admitted that, to an outsider, it may appear that Fitzgerald won’t retire with the Cardinals. For his part, Fitzgerald has said that he’s focused only on 2014.
The Cardinals can’t afford to focus only on 2014. They have a team to run indefinitely into the future, and they need to be thinking about next year even before the current year starts.
In that vein, the Cardinals seem to be already detaching from Fitzgerald, based on a report from veteran NFL writer Dan Pompei. Based on his visit to camp, Pompei notes that “Michael Floyd is in for a big year,” and that “[s]ome people in camp think he’ll be their No. 1 [receiver].”
While that may indeed be a testament to Floyd, the opinion can’t be expressed or considered without acknowledging Fitzgerald and his $23.6 million. Especially with Floyd having a cap number of only $2.7 million in 2014 and $3.172 million in 2015.