As we gear up to the start of the NFL season, Football Absurdity is going to bring you a comprehensive breakdown of every notable player that will be available in fantasy football drafts. We only look at the past three seasons for a player. This is because anyone who is looking at data from 2016 to figure out what to do in 2020 had better be an HBO watcher trying to figure out where Game of Thrones went off the rails. Fun fact: Larry Fitzgerald has been playing in the NFL since the league’s creation in 1920, but will he still be playing on fantasy rosters come this fall?
Larry Fitzgerald ADP and AAV:
Standard: WR70, 186 overall
PPR: WR63, 183 overall
Average Auction Value: $1
Larry Fitzgerald Statistics:
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| G | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| GS | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Tgt | 109 | 112 | 161 |
| Rec | 75 | 69 | 109 |
| Yards | 804 | 734 | 1156 |
| TD | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Tgt/G | 6.81 | 7.00 | 10.06 |
| Rec/G | 4.69 | 4.31 | 6.81 |
| Rec% | 68.8% | 61.6% | 67.7% |
| Yds/Tgt | 7.38 | 6.55 | 7.18 |
| Yds/Rec | 10.72 | 10.64 | 10.61 |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Std Pts | 102.4 | 116.7 | 152.4 |
| HPPR Pts | 139.9 | 151.2 | 206.9 |
| PPR Pts | 177.4 | 185.7 | 261.4 |
| Pts/G | 6.4 | 7.3 | 9.5 |
| HPPR Pts/G | 8.7 | 9.5 | 12.9 |
| PPR Pts/G | 11.1 | 11.6 | 16.3 |
| Pts/Tgt | 0.94 | 1.04 | 0.95 |
| Pts/Tgt (HPPR) | 1.28 | 1.35 | 1.29 |
| Pts/Tgt (PPR) | 1.63 | 1.66 | 1.62 |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Air Yards | 856 | 1024 | 1354 |
| aDOT | 7.9 | 9.3 | 8.4 |
| YAC | 343 | 201 | 408 |
| YAC/Tgt | 3.15 | 1.83 | 2.53 |
| YAC/Rec | 4.57 | 3.00 | 3.74 |
| YAC% | 42.7% | 29.2% | 35.3% |
| AYMS | 21% | 26% | 23% |
| Tgt MS | 20% | 22% | 27% |
Larry Fitzgerald Overview:
Larry Fitzgerald is the elder statesman of the NFL wide receivers. At 197 years old, he’s slightly younger than Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, but he wears it much better. This is probably Fitzgerald’s last ride, and the addition of DeAndre Hopkins alongside the likely emergence of Christian Kirk (and maybe Andy Isabella and/or Hakeem Butler) likely makes his numbers fall through the floor this year. His overall numbers have dipped compared to a couple of years ago, except Kyler Murray made him more efficient on a per-target basis. Ah, what could have been for so many years after Kurt Warner left…
Fitzgerald’s calling card for so long has been volume and efficiency. While he won’t have the volume to be a top-fifteen wide receiver, his efficiency persists, making him a lesser version of himself: a steady Eddie who gets a lot of catches and yards while not going boom-bust on you.
Larry Fitzgerald Strategy:
Larry Fitzgerald Auction Value: $0
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming late June)
Fitzgerald is a great late-round pick or $1 nomination. Fantasy football fans are shying away from him because of his age and the presence of DeAndre Hopkins. Fine, he’s not going to be winning any fantasy leagues, he’s just going to provide a safe floor like when they stopped making kitchen tiles out of asbestos. Larry “Wreck of the Edmund” Fitzgerald has started every game going back to 2014. Finishing 30th in 2018 and 37th in 2019 among wide receivers, Fitz is the best bye-week plugin a fantasy owner could hope for, he rounds out a fantasy lineup like getting a six-inch swab stuck in the nose rounds out our modern human condition.
Best Case Scenario:
Fitzgerald is a great source for 9 points during each of your starters’ bye weeks.
Worst Case Scenario:
Fitzgerald is a great source for 8 points during each of your starters’ bye weeks. The dude’s even more steady than my need to rely on pop culture oddities for joke material.
[Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickbastian/4874877824 under cc-2.0]
[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com and airyards.com]
