Why not Franchise Dansby?

[cgolden]

With the deadline to 'tag' players less than a week away (Feb 19th), I started thinking about Dansby. If they don't tag him, they have until the 27th to get him signed or he hits the free agent market. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that if he does, some other team will out bid the Cardinals and he'll walk.

With that in mind, why not just tag Dansby again? He'd count $9.68 million against the cap if they can't agree on a new deal, but it would buy them an extra four months to negotiate a long term contract. They could tell him that they're only using the tag to buy themselves time and that they have every intention of getting a long term deal done, but the bottom line is why risk letting him hit the free agent market? He's too valuable to the future of the franchise and they have no one who can replace him this season.

 

[abomb]

I asked JoeShmo this a week or two ago and this was his response;

I dont think they will franchise him this year. They would be spending 18 mill in gauranteed money on the guy in two years. If they were willing to do that they would ahve jst given him a long term deal already. I think its a long term deal or bust myself.

 

[cardsfanmd]

What abomb/joe said. If they were gonna give him all of this guarenteed he could have been signed last year. With that said, now i think they may do just that. It does sound a bit Rod Gravesish.

 

[cgolden]

I asked JoeShmo this a week or two ago and this was his response;

I dont think they will franchise him this year. They would be spending 18 mill in gauranteed money on the guy in two years. If they were willing to do that they would ahve jst given him a long term deal already. I think its a long term deal or bust myself.

Eh, you could be right on there. Maybe I'm just panicking when I think about this team without Dansby. I mean seriously, who's the starting ILB if Dansby leaves, Highsmith or Hobson?

 

[cardsfanmd]

Eh, you could be right on there. Maybe I'm just panicking when I think about this team without Dansby. I mean seriously, who's the starting ILB if Dansby leaves, Highsmith or Hobson?

If I were the coach the guy filling that spot would be none other that Adrian Wilson. He would be a surefire PBer there IMO.

His coverage skills would be unrivaled for the position, and he is an even quicker blitzter than Dansby and I'm sure his lateral quickness along the line is just as good if not better than Karlos'. The position doesn't require him to take on blockers, so that is a non issue. Obviously he isn't as big, but I have yet to see him struggle to bring anyone down, plus he would have to make fewer open-field tackles. In the end, I have always felt that we are a better team the closer AW is to the line.

The other plus to this is that Rolle is much better suited to play SS than FS and could really be something special there. If we could work out a trade w/ Jacksonville like Boldin and our late 4th for Nelson and Henderson I would be all over it.

 

[Bobcat]

Just pay him what he desirves. He has proven that he is one of the best inside :B's in the NFL. Just stop playing with this kids brain Sign him to a deal that he and the Cardinals and us fans could be proud of.

 

[HeavyB3]

If we franchise him though, we can drag out negotiations a bit.

 

[joeshmo]

IF they do franchise him it will be with the idea of doing one of two things - ability to negotiate longer and get a deal done and if that doesnt work out trade him. I dont believe they will just keep him around at over 9 mill a season, either he gets an extension or he is traded.

But the problem with that is that he will sign it and the 9.5 mill is gaurateed so if a new deal or trade cant get worked out we are now on the hook for that amount. So they better beleive they can truley get a deal done one way or another.

 

[Buckybird]

Just pay him what he desirves. He has proven that he is one of the best inside :B's in the NFL. Just stop playing with this kids brain Sign him to a deal that he and the Cardinals and us fans could be proud of.

the thing is Graves should have done this 2 years ago or last season at the latest. The more clueless Rod puts off signing players such as Karlos, the most the price tag goes up. The thing I don't understand about the contracts Graves puts together for rookies: huge roster bonuses due in year 4, Fitz, Leinart, Rolle and Levi. The GM is putting this team in financial kaos down the road. Dear Rod, please sign you're best defensive player (Dansby) to a contract he deserves.

 

[Skkorpion]

Hey, hey, Buckybird, you usher in the 2009 version of Rod Graves sucks! Have at it, brother. It's plagiarism or rather, multiple redundant plagiarism and as reliable as the swallows returning to Capistrano.

This year's bashing will be fun to watch. I'm hoping for some creativity in the hatred.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

I'M not gonna trash graves, but his approach is a little more delibarte than I would hope for...

 

[red desert]

Hey, hey, Buckybird, you usher in the 2009 version of Rod Graves sucks! Have at it, brother. It's plagiarism or rather, multiple redundant plagiarism and as reliable as the swallows returning to Capistrano.

This year's bashing will be fun to watch. I'm hoping for some creativity in the hatred.

That may be, but my money is on Graves and Co. tagging him because they couldn't get their act together and sign him long term asap.

They didn't last year. What's changed?

 

[jstadvl]

Dansby will be very pissed if they tag him. Sign him, give hime top 4 ILB money. He'll show up every game and earn every dime. I've no doubts about this guys head or heart. Screw with him and you'll chance screwing that up.

 

[slanidrac16]

the thing is Graves should have done this 2 years ago or last season at the latest. The more clueless Rod puts off signing players such as Karlos, the most the price tag goes up. The thing I don't understand about the contracts Graves puts together for rookies: huge roster bonuses due in year 4, Fitz, Leinart, Rolle and Levi. The GM is putting this team in financial kaos down the road. Dear Rod, please sign you're best defensive player (Dansby) to a contract he deserves.

You really can't say that. First of all , 2 years ago there were many question marks on this team. Many questioned Dansby's motivation and he had been getting nicked up.
As far as huge bonuses after 3 years, the good thing about that is the players have actually turned out to be very good. Had they not, we would have cut them.
No matter what, this organization made it to the Super Bowl doing it their way. We, as fans, are not use to that. Hopefully we are not a 1 year flash in the pan, but until we find that out I think the FO needs to be cut a bit of slack and let them continue to do things the way they've been doing them.

Let me add, I think Dansby will be tagged , but this time a long term deal will be worked out. I'm sure the Cards know they are going to have to guarantee at least 20 mil. to get this done.

 

[Buckybird]

Dansby will be very pissed if they tag him. Sign him, give hime top 4 ILB money. He'll show up every game and earn every dime. I've no doubts about this guys head or heart. Screw with him and you'll chance screwing that up.

amen

 

[RonF]

Hey, hey, Buckybird, you usher in the 2009 version of Rod Graves sucks! Have at it, brother. It's plagiarism or rather, multiple redundant plagiarism and as reliable as the swallows returning to Capistrano.

This year's bashing will be fun to watch. I'm hoping for some creativity in the hatred.

 

[RonF]

You guys need to relax a little, think about it, a team that got to the Super Bowl should be capable of figuring how to protect its core players. Coach Whiz should be capable of puting the right people into the right spot for coaching. There's no reason to get excited at this point. Now when Nidan gets banned for criticizing Card management in a nasty way, then, we can start worrying. Until then, relax.

 

[joeshmo]

The thing I don't understand about the contracts Graves puts together for rookies: huge roster bonuses due in year 4, Fitz, Leinart, Rolle and Levi.

If you are going to bash Graves for that then you need to bash every GM in the league. That mechanism is in every single top 10 pick in the draft over the last 10 years, and QB's outside of the top 10.

 

[Savage58]

Eh, you could be right on there. Maybe I'm just panicking when I think about this team without Dansby. I mean seriously, who's the starting ILB if Dansby leaves, Highsmith or Hobson?

Channing Crowder ?

 

[Assface]

I think it's of the utmost importance to re-sign Dansby. We're probably going to replace 1 or both OLB spots as it is and it would be extremely difficult to upgrade that many positions by free agency in one offseason. I don't think the cost of keeping him should be that big of an issue because bringing in a FA replacement of similar talent is going to cost similar money.

Overall, the Cardinals drafting over the last 5 years has been pretty good. Obviously there have been some misses but for the most part it's been solid. Every team has it's strong points when it comes to evaluating players and for us it's been finding receivers. The opposite end of that spectrum is Dansby's position, linebacker. Hayes is the only other LB we've drafted that has actually worked out well. Every other player there that has been even somewhat productive has come through free agency so I don't expect to see a good replacement found in the draft. Assuming we move to a 3-4 full time this year we could have 2-3 new starting linebackers next year and there are only so many top notch players to go around.