ARIZONA CARDINALS

It takes time for a QB to learn how to throw to Fitzgerald

Sep 1, 2011, 11:52 PM | Updated: Sep 2, 2011, 1:01 am

You’d think having Larry Fitzgerald to throw the ball to is a blessing for any quarterback, but having No. 11 on the field also presents some challenges.

“You have to change the whole paradigm shift, the way you think,” former NFL QB Jeff Van Raaphorst said. “You throw to him when he’s covered.”

Van Raaphorst said how you are taught not to throw to a receiver unless he’s open, but those rules don’t really apply to the Cardinals star.

“You spend years getting yelled at and now you have a month or month and a half to say, ‘OK, I need to understand when and where my miss area; where am I going to miss when I throw to Fitz,'” he added.

The goal, the former ASU star said, is basically to put the ball near Fitzgerald and give him jump ball opportunities to let him “use his gigantic hands of his to catch the ball.”

All told, Van Raaphorst said it could take until the 10th game or so for Kevin Kolb and Fitzgerald to really get their chemistry down.

The early returns in preseason have been promising, though, and the hope is it doesn’t take nearly that long for Kolb, Fitzgearld and the offense to really get going.

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It takes time for a QB to learn how to throw to Fitzgerald