Arizona will have to spend to keep core Cards together
By Pete Prisco | CBSSports.com Senior Writer Follow PeteTAMPA, Fla. -- "They better open up that checkbook. It's time for guys to get paid."
That quote came straight from the mouth of an Arizona Cardinals player. It's not the kind of quote owners or general managers like to see. It is the kind that can cause organizational problems, the kind that can turn a Super team into a super disaster.
It's that type of thinking that can turn this Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl team back into those bad Cardinals teams, the kind that were punch lines.
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| Anquan Boldin is looking for an extension like the one fellow receiver Larry Fitzgerald landed. (Getty Images) |
They have some current players who are singing the same tune.
Show them the money.
"This will be an interesting test for this organization," the unidentified Cardinals player said. "We'll see how committed they are to winning."
For years, the Cardinals have had a well-deserved reputation for being cheap. That's what agents and other teams always felt.
Open up the checkbook? They didn't even use it.
In the 21 seasons the Cardinals have played in Arizona, they have been considered one of the cheapest teams in the NFL.
Mention owner Bill Bidwill and the same thought probably comes to most minds:
Frugal (a nice way of saying cheapskate).
So it's no wonder the Cardinals players are concerned about what the future holds for the current team. They are 60 good minutes away from possibly winning the first-ever Super Bowl for the franchise but success also brings the desire to be paid.
"This team needs to stay together," defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "We have a chance to be special. But it's going to take giving guys big deals. We can't let all the talent we have in this locker room go to waste. We have a chance to be good for a long time."
Arizona is projected to be $40 million under the cap for 2009. That means they have money to spend, which is why players are a bit edgy about the topic. Then again, if you can win a title with a budget, who is really in the wrong?
The cheap talk doesn't sit well with general manager Rod Graves.
"Being called cheap is not warranted," Graves said. "That's a play on history and the past, which is not warranted with this team."
Graves said the Cardinals paid out in salary this season close to the top of the league. They were 11th in the league in salaries. Graves said the cap room is there because they've done good contracts.
"We don't just eat up salary cap and overpay players because we have cap room," Graves said. "We try to put our money in the places where we feel like it will best serve us and give ourselves a chance to evaluate our players on a yearly basis as to whether or not we want to put more money into them.
"I think that has led to seemingly a great deal of cap room after every year but I think we have a chance to evaluate where we want to spend that money and by the time the season starts, we're not sitting there with larger amounts of cap. We've eaten it up. We approach our cap a little bit differently than some teams because we don't throw a lot of guaranteed money at players."
The cap room is also there because the Cardinals are scheduled to have 15 unrestricted free agents after the season, including marquee players like quarterback Kurt Warner, linebacker Karlos Dansby and defensive end Antonio Smith.
The Cardinals are a relatively young team, which will make it a challenge to keep together. Of the 11 defensive starters for the Super Bowl, only three are 30 or older. On offense, there are two, including Warner.
Good drafting is the reason for that. Of the 22 players who will start Sunday for the Cardinals, 14 came through the draft. If you count running back Tim Hightower, who splits time with starter Edgerrin James, it's 15.
That's good drafting. That's the foundation for this team.
Arizona's 2004 draft class was truly special. They took receiver Larry Fitzgerald in the first round, Dansby in the second and Dockett in the third. They added Smith, a starting defensive end, in the fifth round.
The Cardinals gave Fitzgerald a long-term extension last spring to appease his contract appetite. But Dansby and Smith are set to become unrestricted free agents. While Dockett has three years left on his deal, he believes he has outplayed it.
Dansby, Smith and Dockett will be players to watch closely this offseason. But the three biggest contract issues will involve Warner, receiver Anquan Boldin and safety Adrian Wilson.
We'll start with Warner. He said he prefers to stay in Arizona, which would mean a hometown discount of sorts, but anything less than a two-year, $18-million deal probably won't get it done. For a 37-year-old quarterback, that would seem to be fair and it is the type of deal the Cardinals are willing to pay, according to team sources.
Wilson, who some call "Mr. Cardinal," will be entering the final year of his contract in 2009. He is the longest-tenured Cardinals player at eight years. He's also a tireless worker who never gets into trouble, in other words, a player you want on your team.
In 2005, Wilson signed a five-year extension with the Cardinals. At the time, he was a rising player. Now, he's a bona-fide star. You can bet he'll be seeking to join the highest-paid safeties in the league.
That brings us to Boldin. Players inside the Cardinals locker room rave about his toughness. They point to his coming back two games after breaking bones in his face as proof of his drive.
"Are you kidding me?" Dockett said. "He's as tough as they come. We need guys like that."
Boldin, who has squawked openly about his contract dissatisfaction, has two years remaining on his deal. He will make $2.75 million in 2009 and $3 million in 2010. That's nothing when compared to the four-year, $40 million extension given to Fitzgerald.
Boldin is represented by Drew Rosenhaus, who has a reputation for making things tough for teams when a player is unhappy. See Terrell Owens. You can bet Boldin will threaten a holdout if his deal is not redone.
Asked about it this week, Graves said, "At this point we are going to evaluate where we are with Anquan after the season. We still consider him a core member of our football team and we'll tackle those issues with him in a meeting after the season is over. He's a great football player and a core member of our football team."
Win or lose, the Cardinals face a tough offseason. Who stays? Who goes? Who gets paid? Success does this to a team. Being the Arizona Cardinals, traditionally a thrifty bunch, only magnifies it.
"I definitely want to stay," Dansby said. "We've got a great nucleus of guys. We've got a great chemistry right now. Hopefully the Cardinals change some things and keep everybody together. History is they let big-time players go and hopefully we can keep everybody together and make a couple runs."
