Feb. 26, 2008

It’s unlikely the Cardinals will make a substantial splash in free agency this offseason. Keeping the team’s core players together is GM Rod Graves’ top priority, and in order to do that, he must first restructure the massive contract of star WR Larry Fitzgerald, who’s currently on the books for $31 million in base salary over the next two seasons. A new deal for Fitzgerald — which would very likely make him the league’s highest-paid receiver — will go a long way toward determining the team’s subsequent moves. As expected, the Cardinals franchised LB Karlos Dansby, which eats up just over $8 million of their roughly $30 million in salary-cap space entering free agency. The Cardinals aren’t giving up hope of striking a long-term deal with Dansby before July 15, but once they take care of the situation with Fitzgerald, their next priority will likely be to concentrate on re-signing fellow LB Calvin Pace, who could attract more interest on the open market than initially expected after a strong 2007 season. The team still plans on addressing two or three positions in free agency at the mid-tier level. Releasing disappointing S Terrence Holt freed up $3.5 million of cap space. The Cards also got some cap relief by cutting OT Oliver Ross and DL Chris Cooper. The restructuring of injury-prone OLB-DE Bertrand Berry’s contract ($4 million base salary in ’08) will also help increase their spending budget.