You've Got Mail: Ravens Week

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So here's the deal -- there are seasons in which I think Fitz would have had better numbers, yes. But not every non-Warner/Palmer season (for instance, John Skelton was mostly QB in 2011 when Fitz had more than 1,400 yards, so I don't know if his numbers would have been much better.) There have been two seasons in which I think Fitz's numbers were significantly harmed by the QB situation and he didn't battle nagging injuries: 2012 and 2018, although he might've had more receptions in 2011, say, with a more accurate passer (then again, the end of the 2011 season evolved into throwing the ball to Fitz as much as possible, which doesn't hurt the stats.)


Anyway, Fitz is still 238 receptions behind Rice and a (crazy) 6,503 yards behind Rice. Honestly, do I think Fitz would've more than made up both totals with different quarterbacks? He'd definitely be closer, and on catches, maybe you can make an argument Fitz would've had maybe 100 more total? Maybe 150? (Again, his numbers remarkably weren't that far down, and a couple of his lesser years were actually with Palmer while trying to learn Bruce Arians' offense.) On yards, maybe he'd have another 1,200 or 1,500, but that's still far short of Rice. This isn't to take away from Fitz -- it reflects more on how incredible Rice's career was. (Rice had 92 catches for 1,211 yards the season he was 40!)


This isn't to say Fitz isn't great, that he doesn't deserve to be in Canton, or that he isn't among (in my opinion) somewhere among the top five receivers in NFL history. But I don't think he would've passed Rice yet. I do think he'd have bigger postseason numbers, however, because the Cardinals would've had better teams.

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