With the NFL free agency period set to begin at the start of March, the Arizona Cardinals have been in contract discussions with their most important free agent -- defensive end Calais Campbell. While there has been nothing to say whether or not talks are moving in the right direction or not, Cardinals general manager Rod Graves offered some words of confidence while on the radio with Arizona Sports 620.
Graves said this on the Doug and Wolf show:
"Calais will be with us, rest assured. With that, we'll try to continue to focus on trying to get a long-term deal in place, but it will be a process that we're undergoing. He will be an Arizona Cardinal player this year and we're hoping certainly to extend that into a long-term deal."
Based on what that says, it sounds like that the team is planning on using the franchise tag, but will try to continue to work out a long-term deal before the deadline to do so passes.
Talks between Larry Fitzgerald and the team last year had the same sort of feel -- there was nothing of progress and then suddenly there was a long-term deal.
Hopefully the same pattern is followed.
At least Cardinals fans can find comfort in the fact that Campbell will be around for at least one more year.
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