Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald had something of a comeback season in 2015, catching 109 passes for more than 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns in his age-32 season. Now, as he enters the final year of his contract with Arizona, could retirement be on the horizon? “Honestly, I have no idea,” Fitzgerald told Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com (Twitter link). “I really don’t look at it like that.”
“We’re just in OTAs right now, man,” added Fitzgerald, who is set to enter his 13th season with the Cardinals. “We’ve got training camp and minicamp and the regular season. We’ve got a long ways to go before that’s even a point of discussion. So I’m enjoying this. I’m trying to make it the best year yet.”
Let’s take a look at some more news and notes from around the NFL…
- The Redskins are likely to add a running back to their roster at some point, according to Rich Tandler and Tarik El-Bashir of CSNWashington.com. Asking second-year back Matt Jones to handle the load by himself seems like a big ask, write the CSN scribes, who toss out Pierre Thomas, who played in four games for Washington last season, as a possible free agent worth targeting. Arian Foster, Joique Bell, and Bryce Brown are among the other running back options still left on the board.
- Those close to former Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel have begun to fear for his safety, and some are worried that he might not live much longer if he doesn’t change his ways, according to a report from TMZ. Manziel’s own father said in February that Manziel might not make it to his 24th birthday if he doesn’t seek help. We learned yesterday that Manziel is the subject of an ongoing NFL investigation.
- In a recent mailbag, a reader asked Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com whether Bears running back Jeremy Langford can replace the production of Matt Forte, who left the team in free agency this spring. Forte leads the NFL in yards from scrimmage (12,718) since 2008, so obviously those are huge shoes to fill. Langford, luckily, won’t have to fill them on his own, as Chicago plans to use a committee — comprised of rookie Jordan Howard, third-year player Ka’Deem Carey, and Jacquizz Rodgers — in the backfield.
- Here’s a fun fact from ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler (Twitterink): Steelers star Antonio Brown made $62K per catch in 2015, the lowest among wide receivers making $5MM or more last year. Brown is set to make just $6.25MM in base salary this season and with a $12.37MM cap hold. The wide receiver says that finishing his career under another long-term extension with the Steelers would be “an honor,” and he’s not planning to hold out for a new contract just yet.
- NFL owners voted today to approve several changes to the instant replay process, all of which can be found in this PDF.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
One note of clarification. You say that the Bears will use a “committee” at RB. Jeff Dickerson’s piece says that he “expect[s] competition” between the guys you mention. He doesn’t say there will be a committee, but that there will be competition for the #1 job, and that Langford is expected to be the favorite.