Yesterday on 610-WIP star Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald told Howard Eskin that the Eagles are one of the four teams he would be willing to be traded to if the Cards to decide to move him. He would fulfill the Eagles need of a true number one receiver.
FITZ WOULD BE FINE WITH PHILLY
Posted by Mike Florio on January 30, 2008, 11:32 p.m.
Though Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald wants to stay in Arizona, he told WIP radio on Wednesday that the Philadelphia Eagles are one of four other teams for which he’d be happy to play, if he is traded.
The audio is right here.
It remains to be seen whether the Cardinals will try to trade Fitzgerald. Due to escalators in his contract, he’s scheduled to earn salaries of $14.59 million in 2008 and $17.355 million in 2009. That’s nearly $32 million over two years, and then he’ll hit the open market at only 26 years of age.
The Cardinals could, if they so choose, pay him the money for the next two seasons. But it would then cost more than $20 million to retain his rights via the franchise tag for the 2010 season.
There’s no good way out of this for the Cardinals. Even if they want to extend his deal, the price to do so would have to be enormous. He’s already in position to earn $30 million between now and September 2009, at which time his full salary for that season would become guaranteed. Thus, anything less than $30 million in guaranteed money as part of a new long-term contract makes no sense.
That same line of thinking applies to any other team, however. If he’s traded, he still has a contract that pays him huge money over the next two years. What team would want to give up draft picks for the privilege of having their nuts promptly dropped into a vise?
So it could be that Fitzgerald finishes out the deal, pockets the $30 million, and then lets the market dictate his worth for 2010 and beyond.
Meanwhile, whoever authorized the Cardinals to sign Fitzgerald to a contract with escalators like that needs to be fired. Then again, maybe he already was, after the 2006 season.
