Cards Re-Sign Warner; Leinart Breathes Sigh of Relief

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Cards Re-Sign Warner; Leinart Breathes Sigh of Relief

Filed on March 4th, 2009 in NFL ⋅ ⋅

Kurt Warner re-signed with the Arizona Cardinals Wednesday, signing a two-year, $23 million contract with a hefty $19 million in guaranteed money.

Warner had visited the San Francisco 49ers a week ago, but the Cardinals upped their offer to keep their Pro Bowl quarterback for two more years.

Warner dropped a few million dollars of asking price off per year in order to get himself some guarantees for 2010, as well as offering to knock another million off per year if the team gives Anquan Boldin a contract extension.

Meanwhile, word around campus down in Tempe is that it is just a matter of time before the Cards release Edgerrin James, but every day that they don’t, they are just holding him against his will. James is scheduled to make $5 million in 2009 and there is next to zero chance that Rod Graves and crew fork that money over for a guy that (for some reason) was sitting behind Tim Hightower. Go ahead and mark down “best running back available” for your Cards 2009 first-round draft pick.

This signing is good news not only for Warner and possibly Boldin, but also for Matt Leinart, who will not have to start next year, and possibly the year after. It’s not that Leinart can’t be a good NFL quarterback — he certainly could be — it’s just that what Warner did last year with Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald is a hard act to follow. More than likely, Leinart would not be as good as Warner and that alone would have turned the fans against him.

This is good news for everybody in the Cardinals family.

ADDED: You can lead the Cardinals to the Super Bowl, but you can’t turn a shitty organization into a not-shitty organization.

As per Pro Football Talk:

Multiple league sources tell us that assistant coaches who left the team after the season ended have been stiffed out of Super Bowl bonuses.

Though we’re not sure whether the individual employment contracts call for the payments or whether these are amounts that teams pay as a matter of policy or practice, the point is that these men didn’t get paid money arising from the Super Bowl appearance that was paid to guys who are still employed.

Thanks for coaching our guys to the Super Bowl fellas, but since you decided to take other jobs, you’re screwed. That’s the Bidwill way.

I’ve spent quite a few days around this organization and I am none surprised that they are pulling this shit. The Bidwill family and Rod Graves need to understand that this team drastically overachieved and capitalized on the down year of the NFC West and their success is the product of their coaching staff and players — not the front office. Bonus checks should be sent to the people who earned them, not by the people who did their best to keep them from earning them.

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