Larry Fitz to the Vikings Checks all the right boxes
Joe Johnson
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When considering whether or not the Minnesota Vikings should acquire an available player via trade or free agency, I typically ask the following questions as a member of the NFL mediasphere. Is that player the right price/fit/age? But there’s another question the fan in me asks, would that person be worth buying a jersey over.
That question actually means more than it appears, as the player has to be some level of amazing in order for grown men like me to want to cop their jersey and if there’s one soon-to-be retired player that checks that and all the above boxes it’s native Minneapolitan Larry Fitzgerald.
Fitz is 37 years old and has long been coveted by Vikings fans despite his religious like devotion to Arizona. Fitz is a free agent as of the writing of this piece and despite an age related decrease in production, still managed to nab over 50 balls in 2020.
The Vikings have obviously struck gold with Justin Jefferson and with the continued excellence of Adam Thielen only needs a WR3 option that can come through when called upon. As TVA’s Adam Patrick pointed out (when posting this idea before me), over half of Fitz’s 2020 catches were for first-downs.
Another box checked!
One can assume that Fitz might take less money to sign with his hometown team, which also checks a box for these cash strapped Vikings. It also would help the purple save any potential draft pick they’d otherwise use to sign a receiver until 2022, which is important considering their lack of cash and sheer amount of needs that’ll be filled via the draft.
Then there’s that jersey potential.
There are few other players in the league that Vikings fans have wanted to see in purple than Fitz. Aaron Rodgers replaced Brett Favre after he made dreams come true in 2009. So, let’s hope that this dream can also become a reality as the Vikings don’t have the cash possible to be players in much of the anticipated off-season/free agency COVID-cap related awesomeness we’ll be covering all summer.