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WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals

HT: 6-3, WT: 223, Born: 8-31-1983, College: Pittsburgh, Drafted: Round 1, Pick 3

2009 Projections

Average draft position

Current as of June 29th. [Full ADP list]

Overall: M Forte (4), S Jackson (5), Larry Fitzgerald (6), D Williams (7), L Tomlinson (8)
Position: Larry Fitzgerald (6 - WR1), A Johnson (11-WR2), R Moss (14-WR3)
Click here for a comparison of these players.

Best Case

Currently, Larry Fitzgerald is drafted as a Top 10 fantasy pick and the first WR off the board. To be the No. 1 fantasy WR, Fitzgerald will need Kurt Warner healthy. Any possible loss of Anquan Boldin would not affect Fitzgerald's potential success. He has sufficient help from the other receivers on the team, he plays in a spread offense, he is in his athletic prime, he is the team's best weapon, and he is productive even when double- and triple-teamed.

Worst Case

The simple answer to Fitzgerald's downside involves losing Warner. While Fitzgerald was productive with Leinart, he blossomed when Warner was behind center. Still, we could get a Footballguys.com staffer behind center in Arizona, and Fitzgerald would still be worth starting every week.

Outlook

Fitzgerald performed as a top-flight receiver with or without running game support, with or without Anquan Boldin, and with or without good quarterback play. If Fitzgerald plays 16 games with Kurt Warner, he is a virtual lock to be among the fantasy elite.

Relevant Articles

2009 Schedule

2008 Game Summaries

Week 1 - Fitzgerald had a sub-par day when you consider he only had three catches for 31 yards in the game. His first catch of the day went for 21 yards. He was double teamed in the second half, and scored on a one yard fade route for the only Cardinals passing score. Fitzgerald was not a significant factor in the second half.

Week 2 - Fitzgerald caught six passes for 153 yards, but no touchdowns. His longest play was a 75 yard catch, where he faked the Miami defender, but was caught on the four yard line. Fitzgerald was open often and made his catches look effortless.

Week 3 - The lanky receiver was Warner's primary target all day and at times perhaps to the Cardinals detriment. Warner was often locked into watching Fitzgerald and ended up taking two sacks on the day. Fitzgerald displayed great route running all day and was successful in getting separation throughout the game. This was no more apparent then on his 62 yard touchdown catch. He completely faked out the safety and continued to simply out run the corner on his way to an easy score. Fitzgerald finished with over a hundred yards for the 15th time in his young career.

Week 4 - Larry Fitzgerald had just one reception for 16 yards at halftime, but blew up after the break to finish with eight receptions for 122 yards on a team high 15 targets. At times, he showed his physical dominance over any defensive back trying to contain him, using his size and athletic ability to punish the Jets defensive backfield. He had seven receptions that resulted in first downs, converted a fourth down pass play for a first and was targeted three times in the red zone, including two consecutive plays before the Hightower one yard score.

Week 5 - Fitzgerald received a lot of attention, but made the adjustment to get open for shorter routes, and continued to display excellent rapport with Warner. Fitzgerald was unable to gain many yards after securing the catch in large part to the attention paid to him, but he still was able to get open several times, including twice for touchdowns.

Week 6 - Larry Fitzgerald started slow, only catching one pass during the first half. He made up for the lack of production in the first half by having a great second half. He was well covered by the Dallas defensive backs, but he still managed to use his body to shield the defender or to out jump the defender for the ball on his second half receptions. His touchdown pass was a beautiful reception where he caught the ball on a fade route and managed to keep both feet inbounds. However, he almost scored two plays before that when he made an outstanding catch and was originally ruled to have gotten both feet down inbounds but had the play over turned when the replay official ruled that his left foot touched the out of bounds marker.

Week 8 - Fitzgerald finished the game with nine catches for 115 yards, with his longest reception being a 30 yard catch over the middle. Although held to no touchdowns, he figured prominently in the offense and was targeted 12 times many of them deep in the secondary.

Week 9 - Like Boldin, Fitzgerald caught six balls for 81 yards and was open most of the game. Fitzgerald had a long catch of 33 yards and picked up most of his yards after the catch.

Week 10 - Fitzgerald had a very solid game, but was rarely utilized downfield. His long catch on the night was nine yards. As usual, Fitzgerald drew a lot of attention throughout the game, but he was able to escape the coverage for a touchdown that Warner called an audible on specifically because he saw Fitzgerald was getting single coverage close to the goalline.

Week 11 - Fitzgerald recorded his fifth 100 yard game and also found the Seattle secondary of little resistance. Fitzgerald's longest catch was a 33 yard effort over the middle. He made several grabs while well covered and was looked upon for crucial third down plays. He was targeted several times deep against the Seattle secondary.

Week 12 - Like Boldin, Fitzgerald found the running after the catch difficult, but did have five catches for 71 yards. His longest catch was 18 yards. He did cause two pass interference penalties when he was targeted deep against the Giant secondary.

Week 13 - On his first touchdown, Fitzgerald was able to take advantage of a situation which Anquan Boldin could not. On a first down pass, Boldin was wide open in the end zone for a sure touchdown, but dropped the football. On the next play, Fitzgerald was the target and he made sure to hold on. Later on, he displayed the hands that commentator Cris Collinsworth referred to as the best he has ever seen. Fitzgerald hauled in a 40 yard bomb down the middle of the field, and two plays later caught his second touchdown of the game. The second one was particularly tough, as he had to reach back across his body and pick the ball out of the air, then use his strength to pull it away from the defender, all the while moving in the other direction towards the end zone. It was an excellent display of strength, hands, body control, and concentration.

Week 14 - Fitzgerald had 73 yards on six catches with the lone Cardinals receiving touchdown of 12 yards. He was targeted deep twice and had a long catch of 23 yards. Fitzgerald just missed another touchdown on the Cardinals' first drive of the game, when he was stopped on the one yard line after a 14 yard catch.

Week 15 - Fitzgerald found the Vikings' pass defense tough only catching five balls for 52 yards. His longest, 23 yards, came in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand.

Week 16 - Fitzgerald's game was saved when he caught a 78-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter. That catch gave him 101 yards on three catches. Otherwise, Fitzgerald had a tough game with several dropped passes due to the weather conditions.

Week 17 - Fitzgerald's simply was unstoppable on the day with two touchdown catches on only five receptions. He finished the day with 130 yards, with a long catch of 50 yards. Many of Fitzgerald's catches were spectacular as he took over the game.

Week 18 - Fitzgerald led all receivers with six catches for 101 yards and one touchdown. Arizona ran a flea flicker on the scoring play and Fitzgerald went high in the end zone to snag the pass above Lawyer Milloy and Chris Houston. It was the first touchdown of the game.

Week 19 - Without his pro bowl receiving partner Anquan Boldin, Fitzgerald turned in a monster performance in arguably the biggest game in franchise history. His 50 yard catch on a third and one call set up the tying touchdown in the first quarter. Late in the second quarter he caught a crossing pattern deep in Carolina territory. He was about to be forced out of bounds short of the end zone but he dove, stretched the ball out with his left hand, and tucked the ball inside the pylon. The play covered 29 yards and made the score 27--7 Arizona.

Week 20 - Fitzgerald made a case for being the first wide receiver taken in most fantasy drafts next year. In the first half alone he caught six passes for 113 yards and a record setting three touchdowns. He kept breaking wide open on shallow crossing patterns and was covered primarily by Asante Samuel.

He is the youngest player in NFL history to reach the 400 reception plateau and has already surpassed Jerry Rice's old record of 409 postseason receiving yards.

Week 21 - It took a while for Arizona to figure out how to get him involved in the offense, but when they did he nearly won the game for them. Despite Pittsburgh's best effort to shut him down, Fitzgerald caught seven passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns. His second TD covered 64 yards and gave Arizona a short lived 23--20 lead with 2:37 left in the game.