Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald not concerned over lack of targets

When the Arizona Cardinals traded for DeAndre Hopkins, one of the best wide receivers in the sport, that meant a reduced role for one of the state’s most admired icons.

Larry Fitzgerald has spent his entire career with the club and was targeted the most of any receiver on the Cardinals in 14 of his 16 seasons.

However, with the addition of Hopkins and his quick rapport with quarterback Kyler Murray, Fitzgerald has seen fewer passes so far in his 17th season.

Hopkins has 37 targets and leads the league with 356 receiving yards through the first three weeks, while Fitzgerald has only been targeted 15 times, the lowest of his career to start a season.

In true Fitzgerald fashion, however, he isn’t concerned about his numbers.

“I’ve never been one to politic or ask or request plays or passes. I don’t really operate like that,” Fitzgerald told the media in a Zoom call on Thursday.

“It’s just not something I concern myself with.”

While Fitzgerald is second on the team in targets through three games, he was only targeted three times in the team’s 26-23 loss to the Detriot Lions on Sunday, catching one of those passes for no gain.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury took the blame for the lack of targets to Fitzgerald on Sunday, promising to the get the 37-year-old sure-bet Hall of Famer more involved.

“He’s a complete professional. He knows how I feel about him as a player, he knows that I got to do a better job of getting him the football as well because he knows how he can impact the game,” Kingsbury said.

“He’ll have a prominent role moving forward. It was just a bad day of play calling by me that didn’t get him the ball.”

Along with Hopkins, who had 10 receptions on 12 targets for 137 yards, KeeSean Johnson and Andy Isabella took bigger roles in the offense on Sunday.

Isabella pulled in all four of his targets for 47 yards, while Johnson caught two passes on seven targets for 24 yards.

Christian Kirk, who along with Hopkins and Fitzgerald had been among Murray’s favorite targets entering the Week 3, was held on the sidelines with a groin injury.

While Fitzgerald appreciated Kingsbury promising more work in the future, adding a coach had never said that before, he doesn’t want his head coach answering questions about an individual player not being targeted.

“This is a team game, this is a great offense. We have many playmakers who deserve the opportunity to be showcased in this system, who’ve worked tirelessly to put themselves in this position to be successful,” Fitzgerald said.

“Wherever the ball goes, it goes and my only objective is to win and do what’s required to win.”

While Fitzgerald was only targeted three times on Sunday, his one reception extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 246 games, the second-longest in NFL history behind Jerry Rice’s 274 consecutive games.