WR Larry Fitzgerald’s playing future will not affect Arizona Cardinals’ NFL draft decisions, general manager says

The situation with Larry Fitzgerald’s future won’t affect the Arizona Cardinals’ decision-making in next week’s NFL draft, general manager Steve Keim said Thursday.

Found out if he wanted to know whether the 37-year-old Fitzgerald will return for an eighteenth season before the beginning of next Thursday’s first round, Keim said he did not.”No matter what Larry decides, it does not affect our draft plans,” Keim said. “Again, to me, you can’t have enough good players at one position. There [are] guys on a one-year contract. So, again, as far as building your team and the type of depth that you have, you can never have enough good players and, obviously, Larry Fitzgerald is a great one, so you wouldn’t say no to him either.”

Fitzgerald is authoritatively an unlimited free agent and hasn’t remarked publicly on his playing future. Previously, the most recent Fitzgerald had declared his aims for the next season was Feb. 15, and that was in 2018.

Fitzgerald, who’ll turn 38 in August, is second on the NFL’s all-time receptions and receiving yards lists, behind Jerry Rice.

On the off chance that the Cardinals need to, or need to, discover a receiver to supplant Fitzgerald’s spot on the roster, this is the year to do it. Keim accepts there could be five or six receivers taken in the first round, with three potentially going in the main 15 picks. The Cardinals select sixteenth.

Coach Kliff Kingsbury said during the Cardinals’ pre-draft video news conference that he has conversed with Fitzgerald however not about football.

“Nothing has changed on that front,” Kingsbury said about Fitzgerald’s future. “My communications with Larry has literally consisted of golf, investments or Phoenix Suns basketball.

“Like we mentioned before, Larry is going to decide this on his time and he’s one of the greatest players of all time, and so obviously he deserves to have that time.”