Arizona Cardinals have opportunity to use young receivers

Thursday it was discovered Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald has COVID-19 and will miss Sunday’s game at the New England Patriots

It was tough news waking up to on Thanksgiving morning.  Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald was diagnosed with COVID-19 and will miss the game this Sunday at the New England Patriots.

Fitzgerald last missed a game in 2014 but his consecutive catch streak will not end if he doesn’t play.  This will be a golden opportunity for the younger Cardinals receivers to get their chance to show what they can do.

With Fitz out, guys like Andy Isabella, Trent Sherfield, and KeeSean Johnson the chance to get some targets from quarterback Kyler Murray.  Fitz has 43 receptions for 336-yards this season but has not scored a touchdown.

Isabella has shown some struggles but at some point he needs to show up or he’ll have to ship out. He has just 15 receptions for 184-yards but he also has 2 touchdown catches.

Sherfield has caught just 1 pass this season while Johnson has just 3 catches.  One or both of them likely will be active on Sunday.

With Fitz out, certainly we all know the focus will be on DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk but it’s those third, fourth, and fifth receivers that will need to step up to create some balance. Naturally we have to see Murray look for them as well.

At this point we don’t know how long Fitz will be out but with the Los Angeles Rams coming up at home next week and a chance to overtake them in the NFC West standings, it will be important for these young receivers to establish themselves as some kind of threat now. We will know more about Fitz and his status for the Rams next week.

For now the Cardinals will have to make it work without Fitz.  If there is a bright side, and this is a stretch, Murray won’t have the added pressure this week of having to force balls to Fitz to allow the consecutive streak to continue.  It has seemed like that has been the case in some games past.