Will Larry Fitzgerald have a resurgent year with the addition of new Head coach Bruce Arians and QB Carson Palmer?

Larry Fitzgerald, best known for his outstanding year in which he helped to lead the Cardinals to Superbowl 43 against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa. Although the Cardinals unfortunately fell to Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes on the final drive, they portrayed beautifully the underdog who fought resiliently until the final whistle. Fitzgerald spearheaded the passing attack led by Veteran Kurt Warner and accompanied by Anquan Boldin (later to move to the Ravens and claim a Superbowl title with them) and Steve Breaston. However ever since the retirement of Warner and the inability of the Cardinals to find a suitable replacement Fitzgerald has been eclipsed by new up and coming wide receivers such as Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones and  AJ Green most notably. Although his statistics have noticed changed dramatically their has been a noticeable decline in the amount of receptions and touchdowns since 2009.

This can be attributed to the lackadaisical performance of the Arizona quarterbacks through these years, the disappointing performance of the outrageously over paid Kevin Kolb, Derek Anderson, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley and even Brian Hoyer, have all had a start at the tiller of the Arizona offense and none of them managed to bring any consistency. Even though they had a good start in 2012 at 4-0 this can be mainly attributed to the superb play of their defense who were extremely stout, most notably in their two point win over New England in week 2. However at the end of the regular season their offensive statistics are miserable: 31st in points scored (15.6), 32nd in yards per game (263.1), 28th in pass yards per game (187.8) and 32nd in rush yards per game at a miserable 75.2. These statistics are appalling for what was a few years ago one of the better passing attacks in the NFL.

So what do the cardinals need to do to try and restore some resemblance to a team that was a contender only 3 years ago. Firstly they need to re-establish there non existent running attack, the acquisition of Rashard Mendenhall in this off season is a step in the right direction but the question arises about his ability to be able to carry the load for this team after coming off an injury. Another issue is the offensive line, is is apparent that they are not only failing to dominate defensive lines in the rushing game but they are also rather poor at protecting their quarterbacks, last year the 4 starters under center were sacked 58 times (the most in the NFL) which is too much punishment for the person who is meant to be one of the centerpieces of your offense.

Another and more troubling problem is the amount of turnovers that came from interceptions, quarterbacks in 2012 threw a total of 21 interceptions to only 11 scores. This ratio is putrid as it is only one of four teams who actually managed to turn the ball over in the air than put it into the endzone (these teams being the Jets, Chiefs, Browns and of course the Cardinals). Their apparent solution is seemingly to plug in the aging Carson Palmer into their offense and hire Bruce Arians to co-ordinate the whole team. Arians did an outstanding job as the interim coach for the Indianapolis Colts this season during the absence of Chuck Pagano helping to direct rookie Andrew Luck and the Colts to a playoff appearance against the Ravens. Admittedly the motivation and emotion that fueled the team to this outstanding season may be partly due to the illness of Pagano, but there in no doubt that Arians played a major role. If Arians and Palmer can manage to orchestrate a balanced offense with at least a hint of a running game then Fitzgerald should have some coverage removed and be able to shine once again as the star of the Arizona Cardinals.