Report: Larry Fitzgerald Doesn’t Expect To Be Back With Cardinals Next Year

Craig Morgan of Fox Sports Arizona, citing a source familiar with the situation, reports that Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald does not expect to be back with the team next year.

This comes in contrast to what GM Steve Keim told reporters just a few weeks ago.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that we’ve said all along it’s our intent to have Larry Fitzgerald retire a Cardinal,” Keim told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.  “I don’t want to get into it too deep, but with planning purposes, financially, from a cap standpoint, all those sorts of things, we have Larry’s number already baked into our numbers.”

“We’ve had ongoing talks with (Fitzgerald’s agent) Eugene Parker, and we will continue to have ongoing talks,” Keim said. “Even though it’s still not 2015, it’s my job to look at 2015, ’16, ’17 and years beyond, and we have to make good business decisions.”

Morgan points out that Keim basically “put the onus on Fitzgerald to take less money” next year with this comment.

According to Morgan, Fitzgerald is unlikely to restructure again next year and is reportedly not happy with his current role.

Should Fitzgerald, in fact, be unwilling to rework his contract, he could force the Cardinals to consider trading him.

Fitzgerald, 31, is in the fourth year of his eight-year, $128.5 million contract that included $50 million guaranteed. After reworking his contract, Fitzgerald received an $11.75 million signing bonus and has a base salary of $1 million for the 2014 season.

Next year, Fitzgerald has an $8 million roster bonus that’s due in March to go along with his base salary of $8 million in 2015.

After that, his salaries are $15 million and $14.75 million from the final two years of the agreement.

Fitzgerald finished the regular season with 63 catches for 784 yards and two touchdowns over the course of 14 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 31 receiver out of 110 qualifying players.