I’ve been asked often in the past few days whether the San Diego Chargers could target Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald in a trade.
I get the reasoning.
Fitzgerald is tied to new San Diego offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt. He was Fitzgerald’s longtime head coach in Arizona. New San Diego quarterbacks coach Frank Reich was Fitzgerald’s position coach last season. Fitzgerald’s father tweeted Friday that his son was a fan of Reich, and it was a good hire for the Chargers.
Also, the Chargers could badly use an offensive weapon like Fitzgerald, a future hall of famer. He’d be a perfect gift to quarterback Philip Rivers, who has seen so many talented offensive teammates leave him in recent seasons.
So, those are all the reasons why it could work.
Getting Fitzgerald wouldn’t be so easy, however. He signed a monster contract with the Cardinals two years ago and the Cardinals have not shown any indication they want to get rid of Fitzgerald. I’d imagine Fitzgerald was a major reason why Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians took Arizona’s head coaching job.
Even if the Cardinals wanted to deal Fitzgerald, he’d cost the Chargers a ton in trade compensation and cap money. The Chargers have a lot to do. They are not one player away on offense. So, fitting Fitzgerald in wouldn’t be easy.
In a perfect world, this paring makes sense, but there are way too many obstacles to make this an easy connection.