5 stats that prove why Larry Fitzgerald is a Hall of Fame WR despite not winning Super Bowl

Former Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald never quite received a proper sendoff at the end of his 17-year NFL career.

Not only did Fitzgerald never formally announce his retirement, but he finished his career in empty stadiums in 2020 as the Cardinals teetered to an 8-8 finish.

The sendoff Fitzgerald deserved is coming. The Cardinals great is eligible for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and stands a strong chance of receiving his ticket to Canton in his first year on the ballot.

Here's a look at the stats that will make Fitzgerald a Hall of Famer despite never winning a Super Bowl. 

MORE: How Bill Belichick can still make the Hall of Fame

17,492 receiving yards, second all-time

Sometimes the best way to define a player's career is the simplest: he did his job, did it well and did it consistently.

Fitzgerald had more receiving yards in his career than any player in NFL history not named Jerry Rice, finishing his 17-year run with 17,492 yards. More than five years after his final game, Fitzgerald remains second all-time.

Longevity, of course, played a role in Fitzgerald's remarkable career marks. That shouldn't be a knock on him. Not many wide receivers get to play 17 seasons, and plenty of players during his era had more dominant stretches than the best stretch of Fitzgerald's career. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald outlasted just about all of them and continued to serve as a reliable target for the many quarterbacks he played with in Arizona. 

Whether you want to call him a "compiler" or not, 17,492 yards is enough for Canton.

MORE: Why didn't Robert Kraft get elected to the Hall of Fame in 2026? 

2008 playoff run

Fitzgerald never won a Super Bowl, but his playoff run in 2008 was so dominant that his lack of a championship ring should be effectively meaningless.

Fitzgerald totaled 546 yards and seven touchdowns in four playoff games that season, hauling in more than 70 percent of his targets from Kurt Warner and averaging 136.5 yards per game. Even in a Super Bowl 43 loss, Fitzgerald had seven catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns in what would have been an MVP-worthy performance if Santonio Holmes' feet were an inch or two to the right.

Fitzgerald racked up more than 100 yards in each of Arizona's four playoff games in 2008, and his playoff heroics continued seven years later when he put up 176 yards in a divisional round win over the Green Bay Packers and set up the game-winning touchdown with a ridiculous overtime catch-and-run. 

1/16/16 – After a bye, the Cardinals opened the playoffs with a 26-20 OT win over the Green Bay Packers which included two Aaron Rogers Hail Mary's. Larry Fitzgerald caught a 75yd pass in OT and then the 5yd game-winning TD - Carson Palmer's first career playoff win. #BirdGang pic.twitter.com/RlWi89GDyP

MORE: Who didn't vote for Bill Belichick for the 2026 NFL Hall of Fame class?

Tackles vs. drops

Fitzgerald was as sure-handed as wide receivers come, even with a franchise that didn't always offer stability at the quarterback position.

Perhaps the most fascinating stat from Fitzgerald's career is that he is believed to have recorded more tackles than drops. Drops are a subjective stat without a clear-cut number, but the Cardinals website attributes 35 drops to Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald was credited with 41 tackles after Arizona turnovers. 

Even in difficult offensive situations, that remarkable fact goes to show Fitzgerald did just about all he could for the Cardinals in his long career. 

17 starting quarterbacks

Fitzgerald spent his entire career with the Cardinals, which meant quarterback instability was part and parcel of his experience. 17 different quarterbacks started a game for the Cardinals over Fitzgerald's 17 seasons. Here's the full breakdown:

Carson Palmer and Kurt Warner were the most common Cardinals starters during Fitzgerald's 17 seasons, followed by Kyler Murray, who served as the wide receiver's quarterback for the final two seasons of his career.

After that trio, 14 quarterbacks split 117 starts between 2004 and 2020, highlighted by Josh McCown, Josh Rosen, Kevin Kolb and Sam Bradford.

MORE: How does the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting work?

263 games played

Getting back to longevity, Fitzgerald's availability for the Cardinals should be a feather in his cap when it comes to the Hall of Fame. His 263 games played rank second all-time among wide receivers, behind only Jerry Rice.

Fitzgerald never missed more than three games in any season, and he only missed a grand total of nine games over 17 years. While injuries can be random, Fitzgerald was on the field so consistently for the Cardinals that there is no doubt he knew how to take care of his body.

Between his durability, consistency, playoff dominance and the kind of production that put him second all-time in receiving yards, Fitzgerald easily secured a gold jacket despite never winning a Super Bowl.