For the month of July, the Last Word on Sports NFL Department has been looking at the three faces of each franchise. This series only focuses on active payers, and today we’ll be doing a rundown of the faces of the 2019 Arizona Cardinals.
2019 Arizona Cardinals: Faces of the Franchise
Larry Fitzgerald
Without question, Larry Fitzgerald has been the heart and soul of this team for a while. He’s spent all of his 15 NFL seasons with the Cardinals, making the Pro Bowl in 11 of them. Fitzgerald is also the lone puzzle piece remaining from their lone Super Bowl appearance in 2008. Whether the team is dealing with quarterback troubles, or whether they’ve not had the right coach, Fitzgerald has been the backbone of this team. He’s gone a ridiculous 211 consecutive games with a reception, good enough for second-most all time. The future Hall of Famer has consistently been not only a locker room leader but an anchor for the Cardinals receiving core as well.
While his on-field production and legacy would be more than enough to make him the face of a franchise, Larry Legend doesn’t stop there. Fitzgerald has repeatedly used his position of power to help others. In 2005, he established the First Down Fund which dedicates support to more than 300 different worldwide charities. Larry also holds a multitude of community events throughout the year. These range from the Fitz Supper Club to his celebrity softball games. While it may be unclear how many more years he can play at such a high level with his increasing age, it’s undeniable that his role in various communities will keep him in people’s hearts for a long while.
David Johnson
The next face of the 2019 Arizona Cardinals is their All-Pro running back, David Johnson. His first two seasons saw him collect over 3,000 yards, both from the air and on the ground. He proved that he’s both an elite catching back and running back. After he went down with a season-ending wrist injury during Week One of the 2017 season, the Cardinals were reduced to mediocrity. Their points per game plummeted from 30.6 in 2015 and 26.1 in 2016, to just 18.4, good enough for 25th in the league. The team was officially hopeless once Carson Palmer got injured later that season. They couldn’t even get near the numbers they were putting up just two seasons prior.
Johnson averages over four yards per carry for his career, despite having an awful O-line for much of it. If Johnson is able to put up these numbers with such bad counterparts, imagine what he could do if the Cardinals brought in some complementary talent.
Kyler Murray
The final face of the 2019 Arizona Cardinals is Kyler Murray. The Cardinals tanked all year, and despite the noise surrounding Murray, went ahead and drafted him number one overall. He’s fresh off winning the Heisman Trophy and ready to prove all of his doubters wrong. Coming off of several lame-duck quarterbacks, the Cardinals finally have an explosive, dual-threat playmaker. Throughout his career, Kyler torched the competition whenever he was on the field. As a junior at Oklahoma, Murray completed 69 percent of his passes and had over 4,300 passing yards in 14 games. As a top high school prospect, Murray led his team to three straight state championships, along with winning Gatorade Football Player of the Year as a senior. All that’s left is for him to prove it in the NFL. If his track record is any indicator, he’ll be sure to make a splash his rookie year and torch his NFC West rivals for years to come.
