Arizona Cardinals: Do you realize how great Larry Fitzgerald is?

Larry Fitzgerald is already the best Arizona Cardinals receiver of all time. Do you realize that he could pass Jerry Rice as the NFL’s best ever?

Larry Fitzgerald owns the Arizona Cardinals records for receiving. Seems like yesterday that he was the third overall selection in the 2004 NFL Draft. Fitzgerald enters his 15th season as the Cardinals top receiver, even though he turns 35 years old in August.

Shouldn’t he be slowing down at his advanced NFL age? According to Pro Football Reference, receivers start declining at age thirty. Fitzgerald had 27 more receptions at age 34 than at age 30.

Currently, Fitzgerald has caught 1,234 passes for 15,545 yards with 100 touchdowns in his career.  Last season, he had his second best career season statistically behind 2015. He caught 109 passes for 1,156 yards with six touchdowns.

Fitzgerald is the Cardinals all-time leading receiver by 648 receptions, 7,049 receiving yards and 44 touchdowns. In fact, his franchise leading 15,545 receiving yards are 7,546 more than Ottis Anderson’s franchise rushing record. There’s no doubt that he the greatest Cardinals player ever, but where does he rank behind Jerry Rice?

Rice played through 21 NFL seasons by age 42. In 1996, age 34, Rice caught 108 passes for 1,254 yards with eight touchdowns. How eerily similar their numbers are, huh?

Fitzgerald needs 92 receptions to move pass Tony Gonzalez into second place on the career receptions list. He would need 224 to pass Rice with the most career receptions. Fitzgerald could accomplish this in the next four seasons.

He needs 390 receiving yards to move pass Terrell Owens into second place on the career receiving yards list. Fitzgerald would need 6,962 yards to top Rice’s mark of 22,895 receiving yards. If he played until turning 42, he should become the all time leader.

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Fitzgerald is 88 touchdowns shy of being the NFL career leader. It would be difficult to top that mark set by Rice. Career touchdowns would be the only statistic Fitzgerald would not surpass Rice, assuming he plays as long as Rice.

Fitzgerald has quietly become, perhaps soon, the greatest NFL receiver of all time. He will have the numbers in a shorter time than Rice. Let’s hope he plays as long as he wants. How much fun it’s going to be watching his historic run.