Great Debates in Fantasy Football: How good is Larry Fitzgerald?

Since the return of Anquan Boldin, some people have started to wonder just who the #1 WR is in Arizona. Fitzgerald was rated higher than Boldin in the preseason rankings, but that could’ve been due to Boldin’s injury history. Now that the injury is out of the way and Steve Breaston has emerged, will Fitzgerald’s value drop through the floor? Our staff considered the situation.

Marble Ryan: So, we’re two weeks into my trade, and my "half right" edict is coming true. Fitz, despite his TD last night, is clearly the #2 WR in Arizona, and, on some occasions, the #3. Sure, I gave up 8 to 12 predictable points a week by trading Fitz, but I did relieve myself of a very frustrating situation: Boldin is obviously the unstoppable go-to guy and is Warner's personal favorite target. Eddie Royal and Fitz are arguably in the same situation: the #2 guy on teams that throw the ball all over the place. With the way Marshall gets doubled, Royal is an extremely attractive play, and I think his spottiness early season was injury related.

Mr. T: You can't seriously be comparing Fitzgerald to Royal. I think you're starting to go off the deep end when you say that Fitz is possibly the #3 WR on his team. If you look at catches yesterday, it was equally distributed between the receivers. Fitzgerald had 8 catches, Boldin had 7, and Breaston had 7. That's a pretty even distribution, and when you acknowledge that a majority of Breaston’s yardage came on a 46 yard bomb, the discrepancy doesn’t seem as wide. Last game was the first all year in which Fitz didn't catch a ball for longer than 10 yards and only the second game in which he didn't catch one of 20+. That's not statistically significant enough to question his yardage totals for that game. Then, you get to the red zone looks. From the game I was watching, I saw two looks to Boldin and two to Fitzgerald. Boldin just converted on his two. Fitz saw one go over his head; the other became a TD. Only in Marble’s world can a 10-point game from a receiver (on 8 catches) be called unproductive.

The Slow Eater: In no way are Fitz and Royal on the same level. I’ll admit that maybe I underestimated Royal (although his consistency still remains to be seen), but Fitz is the # 3 WR in Yahoo! scoring this season. Who cares if the #1 WR happens to be on his team? That's absolutely irrelevant for fantasy purposes. Fitz still puts up points each week and gives you the "explosivity" of some monster games.

Marble Ryan: I care about points, and, more importantly, I care about trends. The majority of Fitz's points came with Boldin out. With Boldin back, there is now 300 yards and two TDs to split between three equally-targeted WRs. In Denver, its the same stats split between 2.5 guys, only Marshall is double-covered way more than Boldin is. No one in their right mind would double Boldin with Fitz on the other side. In fact, Fitz is probably the one getting double-covered, which is why Boldin gets the love. Bottom line: you can't rely on Fitz's numbers from the weeks when Boldin was out because he had no face.

Mr. T: I agree with The Slow Eater: Fitz doesn’t become a less productive player just because Boldin is on the team. Wouldn't Boldin's production actually help Fitz and start pushing double coverage over to Boldin’s side? Can we rely on his numbers from last year when he finished as the #5 scoring WR? You're just bitter that no one wanted to overpay for Fitz in a trade by giving up a RB1 and therefore you've convinced yourself that he's not so good.

Marble Ryan: There's a reason no one wanted Fitzgerald and there's a reason no one drafted him. Slow Eater, if Fitz is so good, why wouldn't you give up crappy Braylon Edwards and a very inconsistent MJD for Fitz plus a solid McGahee? Why was Edwards drafted 8 spots ahead of him? All of you were worried about Boldin, and the past three weeks showed it was for good reason.

Mr. T: Now McGahee is solid? A week ago he was terrible. It's not that no one wanted to drafted Fitzgerald. He went after Moss, TO, Edwards, and Colston as the #5 WR. And you can't say that the Slow Eater knew what he was doing with WRs because he drafted Chad Johnson in the 4th round. I don't need to explain why Moss and TO went ahead of him. Colston has been hurt, but showed last week and last year why he went ahead of him. And then Edwards...well there was no reason to think he'd be as bad as he's been. But the point is that Fitz was still the #5 WR taken at the end of the 3rd round, exactly where he was supposed to be taken...

The Slow Eater: Fitzgerald’s point totals from this season in games in which Boldin has played are 9, 15, 16, 12, 11, 8, and 10. You average those numbers out for the whole season up till this point and he's still the #4 WR in all of football, as well as the most consistent. I’m not sure why you think you can't rely on his numbers. There isn't a WR you can rely on more.

Marble Ryan: That kind of just put me on the floor, although there's one WR you can rely on more, and his name is Anquan.