The Arizona Cardinals are in the "dog days" of summer training camp. They've spent a couple of weeks now hitting each other and living in the NAU dorms but they don't seem the slightest bit sluggish from all accounts. Instead we are hearing very positive things about the intensity and the way this team seems to have a chip on their shoulder.
The Cardinals held a morning walk-thru at NAU and will have a public scrimmage Tuesday evening at Coconino High School at 7:00 p.m. One more practice this week on Wednesday afternoon at NAU (3:00 p.m.) before the team heads off to face the defending Super Bowl champs for a preseason game at Lambeau Field.
This week the big news, if you can call it that, is the national media finally catching on to what we here already knew about Larry Fitzgerald's contract.
Surprise! (Not Really) Larry Fitzgerald Will Not Have Franchise Tag - Revenge of the Birds
Of course, for a great deal of Cardinals fans, this was not new. It was a detail about his contract that was made known to the Phoenix area when the last deal in 2008 was in place.
Deuce Lutui has been held out of a couple of practices to get extra conditioning (and weight loss?) work in.
Deuce Lutui's Weight Still An Issue - Revenge of the Birds
On Monday, it looked like Deuce is going to have a struggle to regain his starting role. He did not practice with the team, as he was doing conditioning work with coach John Lott.
Former Packer Daryn Colledge seemed a bit miffed at not getting an invite to the White House with the rest of his former team.
Green Bay Packers Snub New Cardinal Daryn Colledge For White House Visit - Revenge of the Birds
"It's a disappointing fact that they didn't even call guys that helped win to see if they wanted to join them. They said it was a logistics thing, but I believe I had the day off."
And finally, we've gotten a good look at the cap situation. The Cardinals have a ton of room but aren't required to spend up to the cap as they will be in 2013. For now, they can save their money and take advantage if a team needs to dump salary, if someone good shows up on the waiver wire, or to use in a front-loaded new contract for Fitz that saves cap space in future years.
An intersting side note here about Kolb's contract as detailed in this chart by Kent Somers in the AZ Republic.
Taking A Look At The Salary Situation For The Arizona Cardinals - Revenge of the Birds
But with a $3 million base salary over the next two seasons, Kolb's deal is not as loaded as I once thought. It is heavy towards the back end and if he is not playing at a high level, the Cardinals would have only paid out a large signing bonus ($10 million) and the base salary. This is good news for those still skeptical of Kevin's abilities.
Oh, and that headline about the kids and the party? Don't really have an answer for that. It just seemed like fun and camp is fun so there you go.