Eagle fans, please hold back the tears. Two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has agreed to a new $40 million, four-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals.
This new deal includes $30 million in guaranteed money. Fitzgerald said he will make $33 million over the first three years of the contract. This is slightly more then he would have made in two years under his old contract.
The Cardinals wanted to renegotiate Fitzgerald's incentive-laden rookie contract because he had reached many of the benchmarks and was to receive $14.6 million in 2008 and just under $17.4 million in 2009.
The new deal will save the team $8.842 million in cap room, dropping his salary cap number from $16,485,000 to $7,643,334. This new contract will lock up Fitzgerald through 2011, when he still will be only 28 years old. Arizonia originally was hoping for a 6 year deal, but in the end Larry got is way.
Fitzgerald, a one-time ballboy for the Minnesota Vikings, led the NFC in receptions with 100 last season for 1,409 yards and 10 touchdowns, earning his second Pro Bowl bid in four seasons. At 24, he has 330 career catches for 4,544 yards and 34 scores in 60 games.
Fitzgerald has said all along that he wanted to remain with Arizona, the team that chose him as the third pick overall out of Pittsburgh in 2004.
Fitzgerald was to leave later Tuesday on a trip to South America.
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