All offseason, Tyrann Mathieu has been talking about a possible contract extension. The Honey Badger is unquestionably one of the three best players on the Arizona Cardinals' defense (along with Patrick Peterson and Calais Campbell). He was one of the small handful of best defensive players in the entire league last season, along with guys like J.J. Watt, Aaron Donald, and Josh Norman.

His contract future, though, is clouded by the fact that: a. the Cardinals list him as a safety but play him as both an inside and outside corner in addition to on the back end; and b. he has torn his ACL twice in three NFL seasons. If you ask Peterson, the contract situation will be dealt with very shortly.

"I know it will happen, just don't know when it will happen, but the Cardinals organization understands what Tyrann means to the football team, to the community. And when you have a top notch player like that, that just doesn't happen overnight," Peterson said on Pro Football Talk's PFT Live. "It takes time, and we have great ownership upstairs and the general manager and the president and owner of the team. I mean those guys know at the end of the day what Tyrann means and like I said, I'm quite sure that the deal will get done here pretty soon."

Will the Cardinals lock up Mathieu long-term? USATSI

Mathieu himself admitted back in March that negotiations could be tough because he doesn't really have a true position. Because franchise tag values are often used as baselines in negotiations with star players, and because there is a $3.1 million difference between the franchise tag for cornerbacks and safeties in 2016, it's difficult to figure out exactly where a deal for a player of Mathieu's caliber should start. When you add in the knee tears, it gets even more complicated.

He obviously is well within his rights to want to be paid at the top of the market for either position, and for defensive players in general. His talent and his production dictates that. But the Cardinals will obviously want to protect themselves in any potential deal, because a player with that level of injury history, even if he is only 24 years old, is a health risk. And though he came back from the first knee tear to be a top-level player, there's no guarantee he can do it again.

With the Cardinals, Peterson, and Mathieu himself all expressing the feeling that a deal will get done, though, it seems like things are moving in that direction. It's just a matter of the parties coming to an agreeable deal.