Arizona Cardinals NFL 2015 News, Rumors: Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald Reach Deal

By Joshua Lobdell, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Arizona Cardinals have reached a deal with star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald that not only keeps one of that franchises icons on the field but creates significant cap space for the team in 2015. Fitzgerald was signed through the 2018 season and his prior deal was set to pay him 16.5 million dollars for the 2015 season.

However his cap number was set to balloon to north of 23 million dollars for the coming season. That led to speculation that the team would move on from one of their iconic players. With the new deal Fitzgerald will remain with the team through his age 34 season, and it seems likely he will remain a Cardinal for life.

Details are slowly rolling in on the deal and Pro Football Talk is reporting that the new deal gives Fitzgerald 11 million dollars guaranteed for 2015 and 2016. Fitzgerald's 16.5 million was not fully guaranteed so the math makes sense for him as he gives up 16.5 million of non guaranteed money for 22 million of guaranteed money.

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The math also makes sense for the team who have no created nearly 13 million dollars of cap space for the 2015 season. That is cap space the team can use on the free agent market to improve their roster. Since they were a playoff team at 11-5 and fought the injury bug all of 2014 this is a huge move for the club.

If Carson Palmer returns to the team healthy and the front office invests the 13 million of cap space wisely the Cardinals could be the favorite to win the NFC West.

This move was necessary as teams look to get into compliance with the 2015 Salary cap by the start of the new league year which begins soon. Every year at this time we see NFL teams and players go through similar moves as the teams look to invest every penny of their allotted cap space.