Larry Fitzgerald is tired. Not of playing football. Not of donating his time to charity.
Larry Fitzgerald is tired of talking about last season. And the one before that. And the one before that.
The Cardinals opened the third day of the draft by selecting Texas defensive end/outside linebacker Alex Okafor in the fourth round.
Okafor has ideal size (6-feet-4-inches, 264 pounds) for the position. He started for three years at Texas, recording 23 sacks, including 12.5 last season.
The Cardinals avoided turbulence in the second round of the NFL draft on Friday by flying around it. But they went directly into the storm in the third round.
After passing on a chance to draft Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, who had a notorious romance with a fake dead girlfriend, the Cardinals selected former LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, who was kicked off the team last summer for violating team rules, including failing drug tests.
Jonathan Cooper’s size — 6 feet 2 and 311 pounds — contributed greatly to him becoming a millionaire Thursday when the Cardinals drafted the North Carolina guard with the seventh overall pick.
But being large wasn’t always so much fun. As a youngster, Cooper was so big that he couldn’t play Pop Warner.
At his introductory news conference in January, General Manager Steve Keim said two experiences in his Cardinals career would drive him in his new job.
One was confetti “sticking to my sweaty head,” after the Cardinals won the NFC title game in the 2008 season. The other came while watching the Cardinals lose to the Seahawks 58-0 last December in Seattle and “making a pact with myself that that will never happen again.”
There were plenty of new things displayed on Tuesday at the Cardinals’ first full speed practice of the off-season.
From the head coach (Bruce Arians), to the General Manager (Steve Keim), to the starting quarterback (Carson Palmer) to the single-man blocking sleds (World Sporting Goods).
The Cardinals’ trade this week for quarterback Carson Palmer prompted comparisons, most of them unfavorable, to the last time they acquired a plus-30 on the downside of his career.
Apparently, most of us knew instantly the day Kurt Warner agreed to terms, March 6, 2005, that the Cardinals fortunes had taken a hairpin turn.
Cardinals inside linebacker Daryl Washington, one of the team’s brighter young stars, has been suspended for the first four games of the 2013 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
It’s unknown what Washington did to warrant the suspension.
The Cardinals have a new starting quarterback. Yes, another one.
And they hope that first sentence doesn’t have to be written again for several years.
The Cardinals are at least interested in exploring a trade with the Raiders for quarterback Carson Palmer, according to NFL sources.
Palmer’s status with the Raiders is in question after the team reportedly agreed to a trade with the Seahawks on Friday for backup quarterback Matt Flynn.
The Cardinals continued trade discussions Monday in an effort to obtain quarterback Carson Palmer from the Raiders.
Palmer, 33, would become the Cardinals starter, provided the deal can be pulled off, with Drew Stanton as the backup.
Quarterback Kevin Kolb was either set up to fail, or just plain failed. It doesn’t matter much now. He’s no longer a Cardinal.
The team released him on Friday morning, one day before he was due to receive a $2 million signing bonus.
The Cardinals’ roster underwent a makeover on Wednesday, the second day of the free agency period.
The team announced that five free agents had come to terms on contracts, and that it had released starting safety Kerry Rhodes, who was due to make $6 million this year.
Former Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Cardinals, according to his agent, Mike McCartney.
Mendenhall is due to make $2.5 million, according to a source, with an additional $1 million possible through incentives.
The Cardinals didn’t use any ink on Tuesday, the first day of free agency, but they didn’t take the afternoon off, either.
Running back Rashard Mendenhall, a former Steeler, and quarterback Drew Stanton a backup in Indianapolis, are scheduled to visit beginning Wednesday, according to their agent. So is former Colts cornerback Jerraud Powers, according to his agent. And Bengals inside linebacker Rey Maualuga tweeted that he was flying to Arizona for a visit.
The Cardinals are headed in new direction – forward, they hope – with their offensive backfield.
Starting running back Beanie Wells was released on Monday, and backup LaRod Stephens-Howling is likely to land elsewhere in free agency.
Adrian Wilson’s fans today must feel as if they were hit by the Cardinals strong safety.
Make that former strong safety.
The Cardinals haven’t inspired much romance or nostalgia in their 25 years in Arizona, but we could count on them for one thing every year: a reason to get out of the heat.
And now it appears that’s going away.
The Cardinals are exploring the possibility of trading for 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, according to an NFL source, but no deal is in place.
It’s unknown how serious the Cardinals are about trading for a quarterback for the second time in less than two years. But they are intrigued by Smith’s experience, intelligence and talents, according to the source. They believe much of his struggles early in his career can be attributed to changes in coaches and offensive systems.
