What happened to Larry Fitzgerald's y/c in 2009? (1 Viewer)

[baconisgood]

97 receptions and 13 TDs- it seems like Fitz should have had a career season last year but his y/c was his lowest since joining the NFL and by a large margin (11.3 v a career average of 14.0 prior to last year and the previous 2 years it was 14.1 and 14.9).

Anyone watch a lot of Cardinals games see something different? did they use him on different routes?

 

[BeTheMatch]

Pretty poor offensive line play - not enough time to run the deeper routes.

 

[Mr.Underhill]

Pretty poor offensive line play - not enough time to run the deeper routes.

I remember him being dinged up last season as well. Ankle maybe?I suspect his YAC was down and that made the difference. A hobbled WR who can still catch contested throws can still get his touches, but his ability to use his legs to gain more yards after the catch is going to suffer.Anyone have YAC stats for Fitz over the past couple of years?

 

[Michael Fox Fan]

97 receptions and 13 TDs- it seems like Fitz should have had a career season last year but his y/c was his lowest since joining the NFL and by a large margin (11.3 v a career average of 14.0 prior to last year and the previous 2 years it was 14.1 and 14.9). Anyone watch a lot of Cardinals games see something different? did they use him on different routes?

Warner wasn't physically able to throw the ball downfield. End of story.

 

[flat_earth]

Warner wasn't physically able to throw the ball downfield. End of story.

 

[Michael Fox Fan]

Pretty poor offensive line play - not enough time to run the deeper routes.

I remember him being dinged up last season as well. Ankle maybe?I suspect his YAC was down and that made the difference. A hobbled WR who can still catch contested throws can still get his touches, but his ability to use his legs to gain more yards after the catch is going to suffer.Anyone have YAC stats for Fitz over the past couple of years?

Fitz YAC by year (YAC % of total yds receiving)2009: 285 (26%)2008: 446 (31%)2007: 292 (21%)2006: 218 (23%)Doesn't look like last year was an outlier on YAC. Rather, it looks like 2008 was the outlier. BTW - I found these stats on NFL.com and couldn't find anything pre-2006.

 

[moderated]

97 receptions and 13 TDs- it seems like Fitz should have had a career season last year but his y/c was his lowest since joining the NFL and by a large margin (11.3 v a career average of 14.0 prior to last year and the previous 2 years it was 14.1 and 14.9). Anyone watch a lot of Cardinals games see something different? did they use him on different routes?

Warner wasn't physically able to throw the ball downfield. End of story.

warner couldn't throw over 15-20 yards last season. His hip was shot.the fact that he couldn't throw far makes his season even more amazing. teams knew he couldn't throw deep yet he still picked the defenses apart.Fitz will almost surely have more yards this season then last, but his TD's will likely suffer as Leinart won't be as good in the red zone.

 

[Inspiration]

97 receptions and 13 TDs- it seems like Fitz should have had a career season last year but his y/c was his lowest since joining the NFL and by a large margin (11.3 v a career average of 14.0 prior to last year and the previous 2 years it was 14.1 and 14.9).

Anyone watch a lot of Cardinals games see something different? did they use him on different routes?

Warner wasn't physically able to throw the ball downfield. End of story.

warner couldn't throw over 15-20 yards last season. His hip was shot.

Warner was physically able to throw deep last season but was wildly inaccurate when doing so. Early in the year he frequently overthrew Fitzgerald and denied him an opportunity to make play on the ball, like this for instance, which ultimately led to Arizona eliminating the majority of the deep attempts to Fitzgerald for the remainder of the season.

 

[CaptainHook]

Ah...great information. I was wondering what the hell happened there. It was shocking to look at his stats and see his longest play went for 34 yards and it was his only play over 30 yards.

 

[D'OHtis]

Limitations of Warner. Would still take his quick decision making over Leinart (who I hope with 3 years in system will improve on - along with tendency to roll out when pressure isn't there).

 

[SSOG]

This is why I think the "downgrade Fitz because Warner's no longer around" crowd is a little bit off base. There's no way Matt Leinart can be anywhere near as good as Kurt Warner 2008... but he's definitely capable of matching Kurt Warner 2009, at least as far as Fitzgerald is concerned.