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Cardinals Notes: Fitz, Floyd

December 22nd, 2016 at 7:10pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Thirteenth-year Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald stated earlier this week that he’s “uncertain” about whether he’ll return in 2017. The future Hall of Famer offered a timeline of when he’ll make a decision Thursday, telling Jim Trotter of ESPN.com that he’ll take a month or two after the season to determine if he’ll keep playing (Twitter links). This season has taken a “tremendous” physical toll on the 33-year-old Fitzgerald, he revealed, adding that the 5-8-1 Cardinals’ failure to meet their lofty preseason expectations hasn’t helped.

  • Patriots head coach Bill Belichick implied Wednesday that the club knew the full details of then-Cardinal Michael Floyd‘s Dec. 12 DUI arrest when it claimed him off waivers Dec. 15, but he indicated otherwise Thursday, per Lindsay H. Jones of USA Today. The Cardinals released Floyd as a result of his arrest, which came after he registered a blood alcohol level of .21 (more than twice the legal limit of .08), and owner Michael Bidwill said the 27-year-old showed “no remorse” and “was unapologetic.” Floyd responded to that Thursday, saying, “I love that organization. Mr. Bidwell treated me very well. I really don’t have too big of a comment [on him] saying that.” Continued Floyd, who could face a mandatory 45-day jail sentence, “I think right now it is about learning about that mistake. I couldn’t be in a better position right now with this team. The guys that they have around here are keeping me focused and working hard” (via Ryan Hannable of WEEI).

Cardinals In Touch With Their Impending FAs

December 21st, 2016 at 7:53pm CST by Connor J. Byrne
  • The Cardinals have an impressive class of 2017 free agents on the horizon, and general manager Steve Keim says he’s already touched base with the agents for many of those players, a list that includes Chandler Jones, Calais Campbell, Tony Jefferson, Andre Ellington, and Jermaine Gresham, among others. “One thing public does not generally know, we have spoken to many agents regarding players whose contracts expire after the season and some whose contracts do not expire after the season that we’d just like to try to extend,” Keim told Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com. “There are several players we’d like to have back, but it takes two sides.”

Michael Floyd Could Face Mandatory Jail Time

December 21st, 2016 at 5:42pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Already set for a possible suspension from the NFL in 2017, Patriots wide receiver Michael Floyd could also face a mandatory 45-day jail sentence for his Dec. 12 DUI arrest in Scottsdale, per WEEI.

Michael Floyd

At the time of his arrest, Floyd had a blood alcohol level of .21, which is more than twice the legal limit of .08. Moreover, given that it exceeds .2, it qualifies as a Super Extreme DUI under Arizona law. In addition to serving jail time if convicted, Floyd would have to install an alcohol monitoring device in his car and avoid drinking alcohol for 90 days. Alcohol has long been a problem for Floyd, who had a previous DUI arrest while at Notre Dame in 2011.

Floyd’s latest arrest, video of which leaked via TMZ on Tuesday, led the Cardinals to release the fifth-year man and 2012 first-round pick. Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill then told the team’s radio network Sunday that Floyd showed “no remorse” and “was unapologetic,” which made it easier for the franchise to move on from him (via Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic). The Patriots subsequently claimed Floyd on waivers, and head coach Bill Belichick indicated Wednesday that the latest details of the 27-year-old’s arrest won’t affect his standing with the team.

“Yeah, we were aware of his situation when we claimed him,” Belichick told reporters, including Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “He’s in an ongoing legal situation I’m not going to comment on.”

Floyd practiced with the Patriots on Wednesday and might debut with the AFC East champions Sunday against the Jets. While Floyd could help the Pats’ offense as they vie for a fifth Super Bowl title in the Tom Brady/Belichick era, his legal issues will surely damage his stock if he gets to free agency in the offseason. On a less serious note, he has also experienced a dip in production this year, having caught 33 of 71 targets for 446 yards and four touchdowns.

Larry Fitzgerald “Uncertain” About Future

December 21st, 2016 at 4:57pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Coming off three straight double-digit-win seasons and an NFC championship game berth last year, the Cardinals entered 2016 as Super Bowl hopefuls. Fourteen games later, they’re 5-8-1, clearly among the NFL’s most disappointing teams and set to post a losing record for the first time in head coach Bruce Arians’ four-year tenure. The 64-year-old Arians will return in 2017, he said Wednesday (via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com), but franchise icon Larry Fitzgerald might not. The future Hall of Fame wide receiver is unsure if he’ll come back next year for what would be his age-34 season.

Larry Fitzgerald

On the possibility of retiring, Fitzgerald told Jim Gray of Westwood One Radio, “No, I wouldn’t say that I’m contemplating it right now. But I’m uncertain about what I’m going to do moving forward. But I still love the game, I love the competition and I love being around the guys and competing for a championship. That’s a lot of fun to me.”

Fitzgerald is under contract for 2017, having signed an extension in August, but his $11MM salary is guaranteed for injury only. Further, there was a report in early September – just over a month after Fitzgerald inked his new deal – that he’d retire after the season. Losing Fitzgerald would be a massive blow for the Cardinals, of course, as the 13th-year man’s career-long track record of prolific production has continued this season en route to a 10th Pro Bowl nod. With two games remaining, Fitzgerald is two catches away from the fourth 100-reception season of his career. He also needs just 51 yards for his seventh campaign with at least 1,000, though his 9.7 yards-per-catch average is easily a personal worst.

Fitzgerald, whom the Cardinals chose third overall out of Pitt in the 2004 draft, has vaulted to third all-time in catches (1,116, trailing only Jerry Rice’s 1,549 and Tony Gonzalez‘s 1,325), 10th in yards (14,315) and eighth in receiving touchdowns (103, five of which have come this year). Thus, regardless of whether he continues past this season, he’ll go down as one of the greatest aerial threats in the history of the sport.

If Fitzgerald does retire, it would further put the Cardinals’ receiving corps in flux after the departure of fellow wideout Michael Floyd, whom the club released last week. John Brown, JJ Nelson and Jaron Brown are all under contract next year, though they’ve combined for 24 fewer catches this season than Fitzgerald has amassed by himself. Unsurprisingly, then, Arians doesn’t want Fitzgerald to go anywhere. The coach acknowledged that “the same team never comes back” on a year-to-year basis, but his “hope” is that Fitzgerald will return.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/20/16

December 20th, 2016 at 5:26pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Today’s practice squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

2017 NFL Draft Order Through Week 15

December 20th, 2016 at 1:21pm CST by Zachary Links

With just two weeks to go, the NFL playoff picture is starting to get clearer. The Cowboys, Seahawks, Patriots, and Raiders have already punched their playoff tickets while the Chiefs, Steelers, Falcons, and Giants are considered near locks by the forecasts at Five Thirty Eight.

Here’s a look at where the draft order stands for the teams not currently slated to make the cut (Note: Ties are broken by strength of schedule):

1. Browns 0-14

2. 49ers 1-13

3. Jaguars 2-12

4. Bears 3-11

5. Jets 4-10

6. Rams (pick belongs to Titans) 4-10

7. Eagles (pick belongs to Browns) 5-9

8. Chargers 5-9

9. Cardinals 5-8-1

10. Bengals 5-8-1

11. Panthers 6-8

12. Saints 6-8

13. Bills 7-7

14. Colts 7-7

15. Vikings (pick belongs to Eagles) 7-7

16. Redskins 7-6-1

17. Titans 8-6

17. Ravens 8-6 (Note: The Titans and Ravens are currently knotted up in terms of both record and strength of schedule. In all statistical likelihood, the SOS logjam will be broken by the end of the season.)

19. Texans 8-6

20. Buccaneers 8-6

Cardinals Promote Harlan Miller

December 19th, 2016 at 5:23pm CST by Dallas Robinson
  • The Cardinals announced that they’ve promoted 2016 sixth-round cornerback Harlan Miller. In a related move, Arizona waived CB Tharold Simon. Simon had been claimed off waivers earlier this year, but managed only 76 snaps with the Cards.

Carson Palmer Expects To Play In 2017

December 18th, 2016 at 9:36pm CST by Ben Levine
  • Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer has struggled for stretches this season, but the veteran doesn’t sound like he’s considering retirement. “Haven’t thought about next year but I expect to play in 2017,” the 36-year-old said today (via Mike Jurecki of Fox Sports 910 on Twitter).

    [SOURCE LINK]

Breer On GM Search, Harbaugh, Draft

December 17th, 2016 at 3:08pm CST by Zachary Links

When it comes to being a GM, is it more about who you know than what you know? In his latest column, Albert Breer of The MMQB spoke with one league official who suggested that the NFL’s career development advisory panel has something of a fraternity-vibe.

“It’s all full of nepotism. It’s a joke. And it starts with Charley Casserly,” the personnel man said.

Casserly rejected the idea that he, Ron Wolf, Bill Polian, Ernie Accorsi, John Madden, Tony Dungy and Carl Peterson are aiming to line up their friends with jobs, but he did acknowledge that connections help.

“It’s so different than it is with coaches,” Casserly said. “Coaches are so clearly defined. You know who calls the plays, you see them on TV, coordinators have press conferences. It’s just not like that in scouting. Are they pro? College? None of them are making big decisions. What you need is networking. It’s not politicking.”

Casserly was directly involved with the Jets’ coach and GM search process in 2015. Gang Green wound up hiring Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan – two former co-workers of Casserly’s.

Here’s more from Breer:

  • Breer identified the following executives as people who could immediately jump into a GM job somewhere: Chiefs VP of player personnel Chris Ballard, Patriots VP of player personnel Nick Caserio, Ravens assistant GM Eric DeCosta, Seahawks co-director of player personnel Scott Fitterer, Texans director of player personnel Brian Gaine, Packers director of player personnel Brian Gutekunst, Seahawks co-director of player personnel Trent Kirchner, Cowboys assistant director of player personnel Will McClay, Cardinals VP of player personnel Terry McDonough, Vikings assistant GM George Paton, Falcons assistant GM Scott Pioli, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin, Packers director of football operations Eliot Wolf.
  • The widespread feeling in NFL circles is that Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh will be back in pro football eventually, even if it’s not happening right now. For his part, Harbaugh says that he is incredibly happy as the Wolverines’ coach.
  • Is Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen the next under-the-radar quarterback prospect a la Carson Wentz? It was Craig Bohl who recruited Carson Wentz to North Dakota State and he is now Allen’s coach at Wyoming. It’s hard to say whether the 6’5″, 222-pound signal caller has the same kind of talent, but his stock is rising. “He’s a big ol’ kid with a big arm, and he’s pretty athletic too,” said one AFC exec. “We gotta learn more about him, but the tools are there.” Allen, a redshirt sophomore, has plenty of time to develop.
  • Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck recently predicted that Central Michigan quarterback Cooper Rush will be an “incredibly high draft pick” this year. Apparently, talent evaluators do not agree. “He may get drafted late because of the [lack of] quality at the position,” said one area scout assigned to CMU. “He’s an accurate thrower with deceptive athletic ability to extend plays with his feet. Not a dynamic or explosive athlete, but good enough to avoid the rush and create at times. Average arm at best, but he’s got solid touch on intermediate and deep balls. He just lacks elite velocity.”

Cardinals To Extend Zac Dysert Through 2017

December 15th, 2016 at 7:24pm CST by Dallas Robinson

After being promoted from the practice squad to the active roster Tuesday, Cardinals quarterback Zac Dysert signed a new contract to remain in Arizona through the 2017 campaign, Dysert told Kyle Odegard of AZCardinals.com (Twitter link). While there’s no word on the financials of the deal, it likely contains little or no guaranteed money.Zac Dysert (Vertical)

[RELATED: Arizona Cardinals Depth Chart]

Dysert, 26, has bounced around the league since entering the NFL as a seventh-round draft choice in 2013, and the Cardinals are the sixth club he’s been with during his four-year career. One team that had previously employed Dysert — the Dolphins — were reportedly interested in signing him off Arizona’s practice squad, forcing the Cardinals to either promote him or lose him, tweets Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com. For his part, Dysert wasn’t interested in heading back to Miami.

“They already cut me once so I was like, ‘I’m not going to go back there when they already cut me,’ ” Dysert said, according to Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic. “Most likely, for me, I would have went there for three weeks or until the season ended and they would have cut me. I’ve been here all year, building relationships with all the coaches, all the guys on the team. I just thought this was the best fit for me.”

Dysert may have had a chance to serve as Miami’s No. 2 quarterback over the conclusion of the regular season (the Dolphins have since signed veteran T.J. Yates), and while he’s now third on the depth chart in Arizona, there’s a chance Dysert could factor into the Cards’ long-term plans, especially as starter Carson Palmer‘s career winds down. Head coach Bruce Arians told Urban that Dysert has a “really good chance to be a good player,” while Palmer was also complimentary.

“He’s picked up the offense extremely quick,” Palmer said. “Very bright, throws it really well. He moves around and looks fluid in the pocket. I think [Arians] is spot-on with that comment, I said the same thing. He’s bounced around a little bit but I think he’s found a good spot here.”

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