Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals is probably one of
the best wide receivers to ever play the game. He keeps himself in tremendous
shape, is a super hard worker and is a tough matchup for any defensive back
with his freaky combination of size, speed and catching ability.
But how do his numbers compare to those of Jerry Rice, the
wide receiver that is considered the best to ever play the game? Not bad when
you compare what Fitzgerald has done in his first eight seasons with what Rice
did in his first eight.
Rice ended his 20-year career with a total of 1,549
receptions, 22,895 yards and 197 receiving touchdowns. Rice loved to work out
and was such a phenomenal player that he was able to produce a 90-catch, 1,000-yard
receiving season even at the age of 40.
At the moment Fitzgerald is 856 receptions, 13,329 yards,
124 touchdowns and 12 years shy of what Rice accomplished in his career. The 12
years may not be so important if Fitzgerald can continue to produce at a high
level but he will probably still need to play another ten years to get in range
of Rice’s lofty numbers.
Fitzgerald currently has 693 receptions, 9,615 yards and 73
touchdowns in his career. While he already has 83 more receptions than Rice did
at the same point in their careers, he is still 658 yards and 30 touchdowns
short of the numbers Rice had after his first eight seasons.
That’s not taking anything away from Fitzgerald’s greatness
because Rice amassed a lot of yards during the first seven years of his career.
Rice’s lowest average yards-per-reception during that time was 15
yards-per-catch.
The first five years of Rice’s career were truly insane. He
averaged 18.9, 18.3, 16.6, 20.4 and 18.1 yards-per-catch during his first five
years. Most receivers are happy to average around 13 to 15 yards-per-catch.
Rice had an average of 15 or more yards-per-catch in nine of
the 20 years he was in the league. Fitzgerald on the other hand has only one
season where he topped 15 yards-per-catch and that was last season.
And that is what could ultimately hinder Fitzgerald from
reaching Rice’s yardage mark. Fitzgerald is currently 40th on the
all-time yardage list and 39th on the all-time receptions list.
Fitzgerald is on pace to shatter Rice’s numbers on the
receptions list but it’s doubtful he will get anywhere near Rice’s yard total. To
Rice’s advantage, he played on some pretty loaded teams back in his early years
that made it hard for defenses to focus on him the way they do on Fitzgerald.
There is one factor though that may aid Fitzgerald in his
quest to surpass the greatest wide receiver that ever lived. Fitzgerald got a
two-year head start on Rice who was 23 his rookie season. Fitzgerald was only
21 when he entered the league.
Rice also missed nearly a whole season due to an injury
which put a small dent in his production. Rice injured his knee during the
first game of the 1997 season and ended the year with only seven catches, 78
yards and one touchdown.
So if Fitzgerald can continue to elude the injury bug and
produce for another decade then he has a great chance of re-writing the record
books once his career ends.
He’s probably too far out of range right now to even
entertain thoughts of breaking any of Rice’s records but this could be a much
different conversation five years from now.
Do you have a favorite team or player you want to know more about?
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at sportmentalist@yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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