Fitzgerald with Derek Anderson at QB (1 Viewer)

[JMJ]

I was down on Fitz when it looked like checkdown-Leinart would be the starting QB in ARZ (still had him as my #9 WR but didn't have a good feeling about him). Anderson has a much bigger arm and pushes the ball downfield more however. I'm sure he will throw his fair share of INTs, but other than ending a few drives premature, they don't directly take points away from Fitzgerald.

Estimated projection I have for him now is about 1,200 yards and 8 TDs as opposed to about 1,050 and 6 I had with Leinart.

How about you?

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

 

[[icon]]

Primary benefit here is anderson has a cannon for an arm compared to leinart so this opens up the deep ball a bit more.

 

[texasheat]

Bumping ANYONE up and citing Derek Anderson starting as the reason is laughable.

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

I see him similiarly as I do Reggie Wayne - a solid performer who is being undervalued at the moment.

Despite who is at QB this ARZ team will be hard pushed to be playing with a lead at any point in the game. We may see some garbage time stats for Fitz. I like him as a guy you can get from WR6-WR9 with top5 upside.

I don't think he performs below a top10 finish.

Also would any of us be surprised to see him finish with 90/1300/9

Nope.

 

[JMJ]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

I hear you. Even though I bumped up his projections due to Anderson, I'm still not feeling totally comfortable with drafting him.A big thing that makes me feel better about him (and Cleveland/Arizona homers, please correct me if I'm wrong), Cleveland's offense isn't really a good fit for his skill set. Seems to be based more on making quick reads with short, accurate throws. Anderson is more of a tall (6'6''), stand-in-the-pocket, let the play develop, and throw the ball down the field type of QB with a fairly strong arm. I think ARZ (at least under Warner, but he is great) ran more of that type of offense. Yes they had their quick-hitters as well, but Warner was throwing the ball down the field consistently and I think that is a huge reason why despite Leinart completing 80% of his preseason passes (mostly check downs), Whisenhunt wanted to go with Anderson because he is better suited to run the type of offense that ARZ wants to play.Sound accurate?

 

[JMJ]

Bumping ANYONE up and citing Derek Anderson starting as the reason is laughable.

When the alternative was Matt Leinart, is it?

 

[LittlePhatty]

He still won't wind up on my team. I'd take Roddy or Jennings at that spot instead. Or even Colston.

 

[JMJ]

He still won't wind up on my team. I'd take Roddy or Jennings at that spot instead. Or even Colston.

In my Leinart rankings, I had him behind all 3 of those guys.In my Anderson rankings, I still have him behind Roddy, but I have him in front of Jennings and Colston. Tied with Marshall (who I previously had ahead of him as well).

 

[joffer]

yes.

 

[Team Smokin']

With Derek Anderson at the helm, I just gotta give Fitzgerald a bump up to potentially top 5 status. He's one of the best WR's in the league and catches everything that comes his way! He was in the 6-8 range with Leinert. Now he hovers right around 3-5. With Warner he's top 3 for sure!

Just my 2 cents

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

If Anderson can throw 15-20TD's in this offence bet your bottom dollar that fits will get 8-10 of them.

Someone needs to go back and look at the tape and analyze what the heck was going on between Braylon Edwards and Derek Anderson during their enigma season.

How the heck did Braylon Edwards have 16TD's and almost 1300 yards with DA?

We might see that most of those TD's were fade patterns or quick slants which plays perfectly into Fitz's game.

 

[texasheat]

It's Derek freaking Anderson people

You guys are acting like he came in and lit the world on fire and took the job from Leinart. Not even close, Leinart was so terrible the job fell in Derek's lap. He's been bad too this pre-season.

 

[Johnny Ice]

Fitz is going to have a lot of owners pulling their hair out this season. He might get his in the end, but week to week he's going to kill you.

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

I'm missing 1 TD pass from DA to Braylon from their enigma seasons but here are the lengths of 15/16 TD's

34

37

21

78

24

5

16

12

5

19

67

4

2

5

45

There are 5 short yardage TD's and I also noticed going through DA's stats that he had some really short ones to the TE's and Joey Jurevicus. Obviously the long ball is in DA's repotoire as well.

 

[[icon]]

It's Derek freaking Anderson people

You guys are acting like he came in and lit the world on fire and took the job from Leinart. Not even close, Leinart was so terrible the job fell in Derek's lap. He's been bad too this pre-season.

Nobody is acting like he's the next coming of Warner.When you're upgrading from a complete and total flop with a weak-### inaccurate arm.... to a subpar but serviceable QB with a strong, yet somewhat inaccurate arm, you've made progress.... Particularly when the WR in question is a deep threat.

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

It's Derek freaking Anderson people

You guys are acting like he came in and lit the world on fire and took the job from Leinart. Not even close, Leinart was so terrible the job fell in Derek's lap. He's been bad too this pre-season.

It doesn't matter - his skillset bodes better for Fitz than the skillset of Matt Leinart. The thinking is that DA will lock in on Fitz as his fave receiver and as long as you put the ball in Fitz's area chances are he can get to it.

They will need to get their timing down though and they have not had a chance to practice this thus far.

 

[Grahamburn]

Fitz is going to have a lot of owners pulling their hair out this season. He might get his in the end, but week to week he's going to kill you.

How many targets would you expect for Larry Fitzgerald this season?

 

[texasheat]

Fitz is going to have a lot of owners pulling their hair out this season. He might get his in the end, but week to week he's going to kill you.

How many targets would you expect for Larry Fitzgerald this season?

167

 

[joffer]

It's Derek freaking Anderson people

You guys are acting like he came in and lit the world on fire and took the job from Leinart. Not even close, Leinart was so terrible the job fell in Derek's lap. He's been bad too this pre-season.

Nobody is acting like he's the next coming of Warner.When you're upgrading from a complete and total flop with a weak-### inaccurate arm.... to a subpar but serviceable QB with a strong, yet somewhat inaccurate arm, you've made progress.... Particularly when the WR in question is a deep threat.

 

[sjdogs]

I was really down on Fitx but even before this move i started re considering my position. Arizona has a very good schedule and they will throw the ball enough for Fitz to have a top 10 season with upside top 5. He is a beast and will get his, Anderson is an upgrade over Leinart as we all know

 

[Grahamburn]

Fitz is going to have a lot of owners pulling their hair out this season. He might get his in the end, but week to week he's going to kill you.

How many targets would you expect for Larry Fitzgerald this season?

167

I'd say that's actually a pretty spot on projection for Larry's targets with Boldin out of the picture. In 05 and 07 Larry had 165 and 167 targets respectively. He produced 103 receptions, 1,409 yards, and 10 TDs in 05 and 100 catches, 1,409 yards, and 10 TDs in 07.

Obviously Derek Anderson is the QB now so you'll likely want to bump those numbers down a little, but how much lower do you go with a player of Larry Fitzgerald's caliber?

If Fitz gets that many targets, and he should, 1,250 yards and 8 TDs is a very realistic floor for 2010.

 

[Delusions Of Adequacy]

Bumping ANYONE up and citing Derek Anderson starting as the reason is laughable.

True normally, but we're comparing with Matt Leinart here.

 

[kutta]

I would move Fitz from the 18-20 range with Leinart to the 10-12 range with Anderson.

His ADP is still way too high for me.

 

[Card Trader]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

I hear you. Even though I bumped up his projections due to Anderson, I'm still not feeling totally comfortable with drafting him.A big thing that makes me feel better about him (and Cleveland/Arizona homers, please correct me if I'm wrong), Cleveland's offense isn't really a good fit for his skill set. Seems to be based more on making quick reads with short, accurate throws. Anderson is more of a tall (6'6''), stand-in-the-pocket, let the play develop, and throw the ball down the field type of QB with a fairly strong arm. I think ARZ (at least under Warner, but he is great) ran more of that type of offense. Yes they had their quick-hitters as well, but Warner was throwing the ball down the field consistently and I think that is a huge reason why despite Leinart completing 80% of his preseason passes (mostly check downs), Whisenhunt wanted to go with Anderson because he is better suited to run the type of offense that ARZ wants to play.

Sound accurate?

Could you be more wrong? Warner had a grand total of 2 TD passes over 30 yards last season he rarely went down the field at all...like almost never. Fitz longest reception of the year was 34 yards. 34 yards.As for Anderson vs. Leinart....in doube the starts Anderson has a total of 2 more TD passes of 30 or more yards than Leinart. Also you should take a look at deep passing overall for both QBs, you'll be surprised what you find.

 

[kutta]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

I hear you. Even though I bumped up his projections due to Anderson, I'm still not feeling totally comfortable with drafting him.A big thing that makes me feel better about him (and Cleveland/Arizona homers, please correct me if I'm wrong), Cleveland's offense isn't really a good fit for his skill set. Seems to be based more on making quick reads with short, accurate throws. Anderson is more of a tall (6'6''), stand-in-the-pocket, let the play develop, and throw the ball down the field type of QB with a fairly strong arm. I think ARZ (at least under Warner, but he is great) ran more of that type of offense. Yes they had their quick-hitters as well, but Warner was throwing the ball down the field consistently and I think that is a huge reason why despite Leinart completing 80% of his preseason passes (mostly check downs), Whisenhunt wanted to go with Anderson because he is better suited to run the type of offense that ARZ wants to play.

Sound accurate?

Could you be more wrong? Warner had a grand total of 2 TD passes over 30 yards last season he rarely went down the field at all...like almost never. Fitz longest reception of the year was 34 yards. 34 yards.As for Anderson vs. Leinart....in doube the starts Anderson has a total of 2 more TD passes of 30 or more yards than Leinart. Also you should take a look at deep passing overall for both QBs, you'll be surprised what you find.

Here we go again...Are you saying Leinart has a strong arm?

 

[JMJ]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

I hear you. Even though I bumped up his projections due to Anderson, I'm still not feeling totally comfortable with drafting him.A big thing that makes me feel better about him (and Cleveland/Arizona homers, please correct me if I'm wrong), Cleveland's offense isn't really a good fit for his skill set. Seems to be based more on making quick reads with short, accurate throws. Anderson is more of a tall (6'6''), stand-in-the-pocket, let the play develop, and throw the ball down the field type of QB with a fairly strong arm. I think ARZ (at least under Warner, but he is great) ran more of that type of offense. Yes they had their quick-hitters as well, but Warner was throwing the ball down the field consistently and I think that is a huge reason why despite Leinart completing 80% of his preseason passes (mostly check downs), Whisenhunt wanted to go with Anderson because he is better suited to run the type of offense that ARZ wants to play.

Sound accurate?

Could you be more wrong? Warner had a grand total of 2 TD passes over 30 yards last season he rarely went down the field at all...like almost never. Fitz longest reception of the year was 34 yards. 34 yards.As for Anderson vs. Leinart....in doube the starts Anderson has a total of 2 more TD passes of 30 or more yards than Leinart. Also you should take a look at deep passing overall for both QBs, you'll be surprised what you find.

I asked if I was wrong. Can you share what you saw in the 2nd bolded comment to save me time of looking it up at work? And since I'm assuming it is going to be pro-Leinart and/or negative Anderson, in your home team opinion, does the QB change help Fitz, hurt Fitz, or have no impact at all?

 

[kutta]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

I hear you. Even though I bumped up his projections due to Anderson, I'm still not feeling totally comfortable with drafting him.A big thing that makes me feel better about him (and Cleveland/Arizona homers, please correct me if I'm wrong), Cleveland's offense isn't really a good fit for his skill set. Seems to be based more on making quick reads with short, accurate throws. Anderson is more of a tall (6'6''), stand-in-the-pocket, let the play develop, and throw the ball down the field type of QB with a fairly strong arm. I think ARZ (at least under Warner, but he is great) ran more of that type of offense. Yes they had their quick-hitters as well, but Warner was throwing the ball down the field consistently and I think that is a huge reason why despite Leinart completing 80% of his preseason passes (mostly check downs), Whisenhunt wanted to go with Anderson because he is better suited to run the type of offense that ARZ wants to play.

Sound accurate?

Could you be more wrong? Warner had a grand total of 2 TD passes over 30 yards last season he rarely went down the field at all...like almost never. Fitz longest reception of the year was 34 yards. 34 yards.As for Anderson vs. Leinart....in doube the starts Anderson has a total of 2 more TD passes of 30 or more yards than Leinart. Also you should take a look at deep passing overall for both QBs, you'll be surprised what you find.

I asked if I was wrong. Can you share what you saw in the 2nd bolded comment to save me time of looking it up at work? And since I'm assuming it is going to be pro-Leinart and/or negative Anderson, in your home team opinion, does the QB change help Fitz, hurt Fitz, or have no impact at all?

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

 

[JMJ]

Still in the WR5-10 range. Lets remember Anderson had a passer rating and completion % in the 40s last year. He might not last long either...

I hear you. Even though I bumped up his projections due to Anderson, I'm still not feeling totally comfortable with drafting him.A big thing that makes me feel better about him (and Cleveland/Arizona homers, please correct me if I'm wrong), Cleveland's offense isn't really a good fit for his skill set. Seems to be based more on making quick reads with short, accurate throws. Anderson is more of a tall (6'6''), stand-in-the-pocket, let the play develop, and throw the ball down the field type of QB with a fairly strong arm. I think ARZ (at least under Warner, but he is great) ran more of that type of offense. Yes they had their quick-hitters as well, but Warner was throwing the ball down the field consistently and I think that is a huge reason why despite Leinart completing 80% of his preseason passes (mostly check downs), Whisenhunt wanted to go with Anderson because he is better suited to run the type of offense that ARZ wants to play.

Sound accurate?

Could you be more wrong? Warner had a grand total of 2 TD passes over 30 yards last season he rarely went down the field at all...like almost never. Fitz longest reception of the year was 34 yards. 34 yards.As for Anderson vs. Leinart....in doube the starts Anderson has a total of 2 more TD passes of 30 or more yards than Leinart. Also you should take a look at deep passing overall for both QBs, you'll be surprised what you find.

I asked if I was wrong. Can you share what you saw in the 2nd bolded comment to save me time of looking it up at work? And since I'm assuming it is going to be pro-Leinart and/or negative Anderson, in your home team opinion, does the QB change help Fitz, hurt Fitz, or have no impact at all?

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Ha. Funny.And I like how he used "30 yards" as the big determiner. How many passes per NFL game are complete over 30 yards? 2 maybe?

A vertical passing game to me is consistently throwing the ball into the secondary (10 - 20+ yard passes) as opposed to west coast offenses that constantly throw in front of the secondary on quick hitters and look for YAC to make up the yardage.

I'm sure Warner threw a very healthy percentage of his passes longer than 10-15+ yards in the air. While it doesn't sound like much, not all (or even most) QBs do these days. I don't think they trusted Leinart to do this consistently, or even have the balls to attempt this consistently.

 

[Card Trader]

Here we go again...Are you saying Leinart has a strong arm?

Not at all, I'm saying Anderson's strong arm hasn't made him a better deep passer than noodle-arm'd Leinart.

 

[Card Trader]

I asked if I was wrong. Can you share what you saw in the 2nd bolded comment to save me time of looking it up at work? And since I'm assuming it is going to be pro-Leinart and/or negative Anderson, in your home team opinion, does the QB change help Fitz, hurt Fitz, or have no impact at all?

I don't think it has any impact on Fitz. Fitz will get his, like he did last year, whether they go deep a ton or not. He's too good not to. I will post some info about the 2 qbs when I get home tonight that talks about their deep passing game.

 

[Card Trader]

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Sounds like you are still bitter YOU backed out of the bet. See you at the tailgate, superfan!

 

[kutta]

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Sounds like you are still bitter YOU backed out of the bet. See you at the tailgate, superfan!

Are you going on Thursday? I'm waiting until the opener.

 

[Card Trader]

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Sounds like you are still bitter YOU backed out of the bet. See you at the tailgate, superfan!

Are you going on Thursday? I'm waiting until the opener.

Yep, I usually take the kids to the preseason games because they are night games.

 

[kutta]

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Sounds like you are still bitter YOU backed out of the bet. See you at the tailgate, superfan!

Are you going on Thursday? I'm waiting until the opener.

Yep, I usually take the kids to the preseason games because they are night games.

Well have fun. It might be the last time you ever see Leinart play football again.My kids are getting wiser as they age. My 14-year old daughter said, "Dad, I want to go to a 'real' game this year." So the kids to preseason games has passed for me.

 

[Card Trader]

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Sounds like you are still bitter YOU backed out of the bet. See you at the tailgate, superfan!

Are you going on Thursday? I'm waiting until the opener.

Yep, I usually take the kids to the preseason games because they are night games.

Well have fun. It might be the last time you ever see Leinart play football again.My kids are getting wiser as they age. My 14-year old daughter said, "Dad, I want to go to a 'real' game this year." So the kids to preseason games has passed for me.

Yeah, mine are 5 and 9...they barely know the difference

 

[3nOut]

I am not sure why everyone thinks Leinart has had a worse preseason than Anderson. I think I saw some stats on ESPN last night where Anderson had nmore yards passing than Leinart, but only because he had more attempts. Anderson also had thrown more interceptions (2) and had a worse passer rating than Leinart.

 

[kutta]

I am not sure why everyone thinks Leinart has had a worse preseason than Anderson. I think I saw some stats on ESPN last night where Anderson had nmore yards passing than Leinart, but only because he had more attempts. Anderson also had thrown more interceptions (2) and had a worse passer rating than Leinart.

The stats don't tell the whole story. Leinart had no command of the offense (except for game 3) and threw everything short. He never looked down field and had a lot of trouble moving the team in the first two games. Reports are that he has had an entitlement attitude in camp and didn't come in ready to work for the job. Bottom line is that Whisenhunt just doesn't believe in the guy.

 

[FGITLOTR]

to answer your question, yes. That said, I want no part of him and plan on sticking someone with him at too high a price in my auction draft this weekend

 

[TWP]

JMJ, keep in mind you are asking this of a guy who almost bet $1000 that Leinart would throw for over 3000 yards this year. If he hadn't backed out at the last minute, he would be writing out a check right about now.

Sounds like you are still bitter YOU backed out of the bet. See you at the tailgate, superfan!

Sounds like he is still bitter he let you back out. But in any case, let's not let this sideshow derail the otherwise awesome thread of which Cardinals QB is the slightly less terrible one and does it matter for Fitz...

 

[footballnerd]

I got him at #25 in a 10 team. I'm happy with the upside of that pick.

 

[havox]

come on.

the dude put up solid stats with josh mccown throwing him the ball. how can there not be value in the second round despite the horrible QB situation?

i'd much rather roll the dice with him than jennings for basically the same ADP.

 

[bulger2holt]

I am going Megatron and Fitz at 1:11 and 2:2 with confidence. PPR. No way I am picking austin or roddy over either.

 

[Manster]

i think a lot of you guys are overthinking Fitz.

he is the THE BEST WR IN FOOTBALL.

he may not have the best situation, but he will get his, period.

and yes, bump him up with DA vs. Leinart.

 

[TwinTurbo]

Bumping ANYONE up and citing Derek Anderson starting as the reason is laughable.

Braylon Edwards won a lot of leagues for a lot of Owners in 2007 with DA throwing the ball.

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

What do we think after yesterday's showing?

Honestly I watched some of the game and DA was spot on with his throws to Breaston but was way off when he targetted Fitz.

I'm thinking there might be reason here to be encouraged - with some practice time and reps I think DA and Fitz could be on the same page.

 

[Grahamburn]

What do we think after yesterday's showing?Honestly I watched some of the game and DA was spot on with his throws to Breaston but was way off when he targetted Fitz.I'm thinking there might be reason here to be encouraged - with some practice time and reps I think DA and Fitz could be on the same page.

He's going to be fine.

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

He was targeted 14 times but some of those throws were just gawd awful.

 

[Resident A]

DA's throws to Breaston were not "on the money". Most of them were behind Breaston & he had to adjust, they just weren't as bad as the throws to Fitz. I think if Fitz had been 100%, he would've caught 2-3 more of his targets because he's a freak. Several of them were totally uncatchable even for Superman, however.

I'm encouraged by the targets & the TD, but I'm still a bit scared going forward. I do think Fitz & DA will be better once they get used to each other & Fitz's knee gets better.

 

[Macdaddy_2004]

Ok Maybe I exagerrated when I said "on the money" more like in the area. The few I saw to Breaston were pretty catchable balls though.