Arizona Cardinals, Calais Campbell Talking Contract: A New Deal on the Horizon

According to Kent Somers of azcentral.com, the Arizona Cardinals and their star defensive end, Calais Campbell, are talking contracts. General Manager Rod Graves believes a deal may be done “sooner rather than later.”

“We’ve been in negotiations for some time,” said Graves. “Not only has Calais performed well on the field, but he’s also been superb off the field as a representative of this team.”

Campbell has indeed shined this season. The 25-year-old fourth-year man out of Miami (FL) leads the team with seven sacks thus far. He has also been disruptive in the run game, and has single handedly (pun intended) aided in three of Arizona’s victories in 2011, blocking three field goal attempts.

This is perhaps the largest steppingstone for the organization since opening University of Phoenix Stadium. The team has let major players walk in free agency so many times over just the past 15 years.

Simeon Rice, 1996, No. 3 overall.

Andre Wadsworth, 1998, No. 3 overall.

Kyle Vanden Bosch, 2001, No. 34 overall.

Calvin Pace, 2003, No. 18 overall.

Antonio Smith, 2004, No. 135 overall (not a star, but has been above average).

And those are just the defensive ends.

The list of players the Arizona Cardinals have let go rather than pay to keep around is longer than the Monday morning line at the DMV. But since Michael Bidwill took over the reins from his father, Bill Bidwill, things have begun to change in the desert.

No longer does management allow its star players to walk for the simple reason of not wanting to fork over the paycheck they have spilled sweat and blood to earn.

Just before the 2011 season got under way, the Cardinals signed receiver Larry Fitzgerald to the largest contract in franchise history, an unprecedented eight year, $120 million deal that will see him retire as the greatest player to ever don the Cardinal Red uniform.

And so the trend continues. Maybe Arizona is not a place players go to get paid somewhere else after all.