Off-season won’t be quiet for Cards GM
Change is inevitable in the NFL, but not at the volume the Cardinals experienced in 2013.
From the time Steve Keim was hired as general manager last January through the end of the year, the Cardinals made 193 roster moves. Of the 53 players on the final roster, 28 were not with the team in 2012, including 10 starters in the final game last Sunday against the 49ers.
It’s a pace that Keim and coach Bruce Arians would prefer not to maintain in 2014, although both are believers in “churning” the bottom of the roster in hopes of finding quality players.
That doesn’t mean this off-season will be quiet for Keim, Jason Licht, the vice president of player personnel, and the rest of the football staff.
The Cardinals aren’t yet well-positioned for the future when it comes to length and value of players’ contracts and salary-cap management.
But they didn’t expect to be. Keim often has talked about developing and maintaining a plan that accounts for the next three seasons. It’s going to take a while longer to put that into place, and here are some of the major contract issues the team faces this off-season.
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald’s $18 million cap figure. Fitzgerald’s salary is due to increase from $5 million in 2013 to $12.75 million in 2014. The salary cap for each team is expected to increase only 2-3 percent, to around $126 million. Based on his current deal, Fitzgerald would account for about 14.3 percent of that figure.
The Cardinals haven’t approached Fitzgerald’s agent, Eugene Parker, about restructuring the contract, but they will. Negotiations will be interesting because Fitzgerald isn’t going to take a pay cut.
He will be open to a restructuring that might include converting salary into a bonus that can be prorated over the next few years.
Something has to give, because if Fitzgerald’s cap number doesn’t decrease, the Cardinals will be handicapped when it comes to extending other deals and signing free agents.
Inside linebacker Daryl Washington’s $10 million option bonus. The bonus clause was included in the extension Washington signed in 2012 but events of 2013 have to give the Cardinals pause in paying it.
Washington was suspended for the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Also, he is charged with assault from an alleged incident with an ex-girlfriend. Washington has pleaded not guilty and his next court hearing is in January.
In addition to punishment by the courts, Washington could be disciplined by the NFL again.
As it looks now, the Cardinals will pay the bonus, keeping Washington under contract for the next four seasons.
They already face the prospect of losing inside linebacker Karlos Dansby in free agency, the Cardinals can ill afford to lose the guy who starts next to Dansby.
If the bonus isn’t exercised, Washington becomes an unrestricted free agent at age 27.
Extending cornerback Patrick
Peterson’s contract. Peterson has another year left on his rookie deal, but the Cardinals would prefer to extend his contract now rather than later.
Peterson will command huge money, and the Cardinals have been trying to budget for it. For instance, they maintained a little cap space in 2012, a few million, so they could carry it over to 2013.
It’s a mystery how negotiations will progress. The 2011 rookie class, of which Peterson is a member, was the first under the new collective bargaining agreement. Those players were subject to a rookie wage scale and first-round picks such as Peterson didn’t receive the mega millions their predecessors did.
This is their first chance at a big pay day.
The Cardinals will want some financial consideration in return for extending a contract that has a year remaining on it.
The Cardinals are sure to remind Peterson’s new agent, Joel Segal, that with the franchise tag, they could control Peterson’s rights for the next three years.
Re-signing free agents. The Cardinals have 16 unrestricted free agents, half of which are starters, including punter Dave Zastudil and kicker Jay Feely.
The Cardinals want many of them back, although they aren’t naming all the names yet.
Dansby, voted the team’s most valuable player by reporters covering the team daily, is the priority. But re-signing him won’t be easy.
First, Dansby has a high opinion of his work, justifiably so. But he also is 32, and teams have learned that giving long-term, multi-million contracts to players over 30 often is the HOV lane to salary cap trouble.
The Cardinals aren’t going to name their priority free agents, but linebacker Matt Shaughnessy, tight end Jim Dray, defensive end Frostee Rucker and right tackle Eric Winston are all 30 and under. So is running back Rashard Mendenhall, a favorite of Arians.