WR Fitzgerald to return for 15th season

New Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks said wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald — arguably the most popular and certainly the most prolific player to don a Cardinals uniform — will return for a 15th NFL season.

Wilks says Fitzgerald told him of his decision in a conversation Wednesday night.

So for at least one more season, Fitzgerald will be scooping in the throws — from somebody — and laying down some blocks for David Johnson.

There was a quick response from teammate and golfing partner, cornerback Patrick Peterson. “Wouldn’t be the same without him,” Peterson said on twitter, with a photo of Fitzgerald hugging him.

Bengals

AJ McCarron won his grievance against Cincinnati and will become an unrestricted free agent next month. McCarron challenged the Bengals’ decision to put him on a non-football injury list as a rookie in 2014, when the fifth-round pick had a sore passing shoulder. The move meant that the season wouldn’t count toward free agency and McCarron would have to stick around as Andy Dalton’s backup for one more year in 2018. Instead, an independent arbitrator ruled in McCarron’s favor.

Raiders

Oakland has decided not to bring back Sebastian Janikowski. Even though he turns 40 in less than three weeks, Janikowski intends to play for an NFL team next season. Janikowski was the team’s longest-tenured player in franchise history after being drafted 17th overall in 2000, and will become an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year. “At 39, Sebastian is too young to retire,” his agent, Paul Healy, told the Bay Area News Group.

Elsewhere

The NFL has named five sites as finalists to host the NFL draft in 2019 and 2020. The finalists to host either the 2019 or 2020 draft include Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Las Vegas; and Nashville, Tenn., plus a combined entry of Cleveland and Canton, Ohio. The NFL will announce final selections at their meeting in May.