“Monday Morning Quarterback” by SI.com’s Peter King has become a staple in the football world and like usual around the time of the NFL Draft, King drops another golden piece of information. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald wants the team to use the 13th overall pick on another wide receiver – Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd.
Fitzgerald told King this in a phone conversation this past weekend. When you look at Fitzgerald’s numbers, there is some legitimacy to it. Without a solid threat on the other side of the field, Fitzgerald faces defenses geared solely to stop him.
Since the Cardinals traded wide receiver Anquan Boldin before the 2010 regular season, Fitzgeralds numbers have declined. In 2009 Fitzgerald caught 97 passes for 1,092 yards receiving with 13 touchdowns. In 2010 he caught 90 passes for 1,137 yards with 6 touchdowns. Finally, this past season he caught 80 passes for 1,411 yards receiving with 8 touchdowns.
Some may argue that the problem wasn’t the departure of Boldin, but the retirement of quarterback Kurt Warner after the 2009 season. Warner had a story book career that may culminate in an induction into the NFL Hall of Fame. Warner threw for 32,344 yards passing with 208 touchdowns 128 interceptions for a 93.7 quarterback rating.
The best way to describe the quarterback situation in Arizona would be the acronym FUBAR, which originated in World War II and appears frequently in the movies from “Saving Private Ryan” to “Tango and Cash.” If you don’t know what that means, well you’re going to have to look that one up, but it isn’t good.
The one thing you cannot blame is the Cardinals lack of trying to find a quarterback as prior to the 2011 season they traded for quarterback Kevin Kolb in exchange for cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
