Posts tagged LarryFitzgerald at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook made one of the strangest plays of the NFL season when he took a handoff against the Dallas Cowboys, broke into the clear, raced toward the end zone -- and stopped at the 1-yard line.

The Eagles had a four-point lead just before the two-minute warning at the time, the Cowboys were out of timeouts, and after Westbrook's play Philadelphia could just run out the clock with three straight kneeldowns.

Eagles coach Andy Reid praised Westbrook, but not everyone did. Take Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who approached Westbrook at the Pro Bowl and told him, "You ruined my fantasy football team."

Yes, NFL players do play fantasy football, and as Adam Rank of NFL.com writes, Fitzgerald was among the thousands of fantasy football players who were disappointed when Westbrook took away some easy fantasy points for a silly reason like managing the clock late in a close game.

Westbrook's play might have been the most memorable in the history of fantasy football, and Fitzgerald is one of the many fantasy players who was still thinking about it long after the season ended.

Voluntary workouts are underway in Arizona, and according to the Republic's Kent Somers, 77 players showed up. But it the two who didn't are making news: wide receiver Anquan Boldin and defensive lineman Darnell Dockett are voluntarily choosing to not work out because, you guessed it, they each want new contracts.

Boldin has three years remaining on his current contract, but that became moot when Larry Fitzgerald landed an extension that included $30 million in guaranteed dough.

While Somers writes that Boldin "doesn't necessarily need the work, as long as he shows up to training camp in July", head coach Ken Whisenhunt feels differently:

"I'm excited about the guys who are, (here)," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "I would be less than honest if I said if I wasn't disappointed that Anquan and Darnell weren't here. But once again, these are voluntary." ...

"Any time you have a good player, he contributes not in the just the playing but in other areas," Whisenhunt said. "Whether it's what he sees, or even advice. That's why we want those guys here and really believe so much in the team continuity aspect..."

Good news: the team has expressed interested in re-working Boldin's deal, and allegedly turned down numerous trade requests this offseason. Bad news (for Darnell): Dockett has four years on his current contract and the club has told him he'll have to wait.

Jerry Jones is a slickster. This we know. He also loves wheeling and dealing, particularly when it comes to Dallas Cowboys personnel decisions. And whatever you think about his sometime meddling tendencies, he's done a pretty good job as the team's owner.

His latest projects include trying to pry Pacman Jones from the Titans and trading for a big-play wide receiver. Recent events suggest the former is a lot less likely than the latter, although Jones says he hasn't once inquired about the Bengals' Chad Johnson.

According to the Dallas Morning News' Albert Breer, Jones "did say that he has asked another team about the availability of a star receiver."

"I wouldn't give who it was, but the answer is yes. We have talked (with another team)," Jones said. "I wouldn't give you a timeframe on it either, if you're talking the last week or the last few days. But certainly since (the start of) the offseason."

The two most obvious choices are Detroit's Roy Williams and Arizona's Anquan Boldin. Matt Millen has nixed the Williams scuttlebutt, which makes me think he'll definitely get traded, and Boldin didn't seem all that phased by teammate Larry Fitzgerald's new deal. So who knows.

Jones also hinted that a draft-day trade could be an option, and having two first-round picks certainly helps with that. Ultimately, the Cowboys are in good shape heading into the weekend. Even if they don't make a trade, they can address two of their three biggest needs -- CB, WR and RB -- in the first 28 picks. A lot of teams would love to have such problems, including those teams, real or imagined, that are potential trade partners with the Cowboys.

Lots of mock drafts and pundits have the 49ers taking a receiver in the first round. Based on the fact that mock drafts and pundits usually do their work on the previous season, that seems fair -- the receivers offered Alex Smith just about as much help as his offensive line did (which is to say, not very much).

But there's a problem with this way of draft prognostication -- it ignores player development and, uh, a little thing called free agency.

By adding Bryant Johnson and Isaac Bruce in free agency, the team has already improved drastically. Johnson is sort of anonymous to a lot of fans, because he played understudy to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald thus far, but the former first-rounder has a ton of big-play ability. Bruce is ancient but can still offer a lot in the intangibles department and is a reliable target.

And then there's Jason Hill, a project receiver the 49ers took last year who has skills comparable to DeSean Jackson (one of the incoming rookies most linked to the 49ers). Hill had a rough rookie year (as do most projects) but has reportedly made tremendous strides. With the aforementioned duo and Arnaz Battle locked into the team's top three spots, Hill wouldn't be relied on for much and if he proves capable of doing that drafting a receiver early would be totally unnecessary.

Now Vernon Davis ... who knows what's up with that dude.

The much-discussed contract extension for Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is finally, officially done, Pro Football Talk is reporting.

Fitzgerald announced that he had agreed to the contract almost two weeks ago, but NFL contracts are complex documents, and contracts that guarantee the player $30 million are especially complex, and it took the Cardinals and Fitzgerald's agent more than 10 days to finish the deal after they had agreed on the basic parameters.

And in the mean time, the Cardinals have been handcuffed by the enormous base salary that was on Fitzgerald's previous deal. They were forced to cut special teams ace Sean Morey just to be in compliance with the NFL salary cap, and they missed out on signing Brandon Chillar, a linebacker they wanted to add but who went to Green Bay when Arizona couldn't find room to fit him under its salary cap.

The bottom line is that although the Cardinals have locked up one of the best young players in the league for the next four years, they've done so in a way that shows their front office is not doing a good job of managing its salary cap. There's a reason that even in this age of parity, some teams perpetually miss the playoffs.

If you though the Larry Fitzgerald contract woes were over in Arizona, you thought wrong.

Only a week after Fitzgerald's official site announced the new deal, Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic (via PFT) is reporting that the four-year, $40 million contract is not yet official. And while that may not seem like a big deal on the surface, this little hiccup has already resulted in the loss of wide receiver Sean Morey -- who was released yesterday.

While Morey is likely to be re-signed once the contract mess is finally put to bed, this unfortunate series of events does not look good for General Manager Rod Graves. If he ever wants to win over the fans -- something that seems like an impossible task -- he's going to have to avoid these types of blunders.

Let's just hope this little mistake doesn't prevent Arizona from signing free agent linebacker Brandon Chillar; whom the team is very interested in.

Apparently, not everybody in the NFL is a money-grubbing, "makin' it rain" a-hole. Actually, I think a large percentage of players are stand-up guys. But sometimes fans and media overemphasize an isolated strip club incident or puppy murder and make sweeping generalizations about the entire league.

Anyway, Anquan Boldin is one of those stand-up guys. After Larry Fitzgerald signed a new deal last week, the conversation immediately turned to Boldin, and how long until he and his agent Drew Rosenhaus would start making noise about renegotiating a contract he signed almost three years ago.

Boldin has no such plans, however. In fact, he's more concerned with doing his job and letting Rosenhaus take care of the off-field stuff.

"I leave that up to my agent" Boldin said Monday ... "They'll go back and forth. He'll keep me in the loop for the most part, but I can't be worried about that. I think when players get involved in that, that starts to affect their play on the field.

"Me, I can go home and sleep good at night, staying out of the business side of it and just concentrating on what I need to do."

If the Cardinals end up giving Boldin "Fitzgerald money," the team would have 20 percent of their cap tied up in wide receivers. Seems like a lot, but as the Arizona Republic's Kent Somers points out, the Rams (Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt) and the Colts (Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne) managed.

Whatever happens, Boldin will get paid, either in Arizona or somewhere else. Like, oh, I don't know, Dallas.

So much for Bryant Johnson getting that big free-agent contract. The Cardinals former wideout and first-round pick has signed a one-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers, which seems kinda surprising since the Eagles and Bills were purportedly interested and had bigger needs at the position (or, at the very least, just as big, but better records).

During his five-year career, Johnson hasn't lived up to his draft status, but some of that has to do with playing with Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. Obviously, some of that has to with Johnson too:

The 49ers were not interested in Johnson at the start of free agency. The club does not view him as a No. 1 receiver. He had a tendency to blend into games without being much of a factor behind Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. But Johnson received little attention on the open market, thus lowering his price to a reasonable level.

Johnson's had issues holding onto the ball, which had something to do with the notion that "he had a tendency to blend into games." That he couldn't get a longer-term deal out of the Bills, who are forever looking for a receiver to complement Lee Evans is indicting -- almost as much as the fact that the Washington Redskins, also looking to add a wide receiver, didn't even have Johnson in for a visit.

And finally, this nugget from the Pressdemocrat.com: "Johnson could be in a fight for playing time with Isaac Bruce, Darrell Jackson, Arnaz Battle, Ashley Lelie and Jason Hill." Doesn't sound like the 49ers are expecting much, which explains the one-year deal. Good news for Johnson, though: he'll have one less person to beat out for playing time.

Now that Larry Fitzgerald has his shiny new deal in place -- $30 million guaranteed over the next three years -- the talk has turned to his teammate, wide receiver Anquan Boldin. Specifically, how he'll handle being grossly underpaid next to Fitzgerald.

Assuming Boldin's grumpy about the latest developments could be good news for the Redskins, a team that has historically enjoyed grossly overpaying for players. The Washington Post's Jason La Canfora writes:

[Boldin's] another No. 1 WR who fits the mold of what the Skins prize, and they have certainly created enough cap space in the last few months to pull off one major deal. I'm not sure the Cards would even do a deal any time soon, but if they did shop Boldin I would expect the Skins to fish around on that.

Vinny Cerrato has talked a lot about holding onto draft picks, but, like Chad Johnson, Boldin is the kind of unique talent who can cause you to consider making a move...

It's no secret owner Dan Snyder covets a big-play wide receiver and Boldin certainly fits the mold. He's not as charismatic as Ocho Cinco, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. As La Canfora points out, there's no indication the Cardinals are even interested in trading Boldin, but the Redskins have a way of throwing enough dough at a problem to get what they want.

To their credit, though, they've been very conservative this off-season. And for what it will cost to bring Boldin to D.C., it makes a lot more sense to go after D.J. Hackett.

YouTubes via the Dallas Cowboys Blog

Congratulations to Larry-Fitzgerald.com for breaking the NFL news of the day (via PFT), which is that Larry Fitzgerald and the Arizona Cardinals have agreed on a contract extension.

From Larry-Fitzgerald.com:

The Arizona Cardinals have reached a contract agreement with All- Pro wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Pending NFL approval. The 24 year old Fitzgerald, who helped the Cardinals to a 8-8 record in 2007 their best in ten years will remain with the Cardinals after signing a four-year contract extent ion.

The two-time Pro Bowl star said, "I'm very happy with this my intent was to stay with the Cardinals, I'm grateful that we were able to get this done."

Fitzgerald's site says he will get $33 million over the next three years, and that $30 million of that is guaranteed. Although that's a phenomenal contract by the standards of most players, I actually think he and his agent should have driven a harder bargain than that.

Fitzgerald was scheduled to earn $31 million over the next two seasons and then become a free agent while still in his prime. That money wasn't guaranteed, but the Cardinals appeared set to pay all of it. So by taking $33 million for three years and $30 million guaranteed, Fitzgerald has given the Cardinals a good deal.