Kent Somers is reporting that Rod Graves and Dansby's agent, Kirk Wood finally talked this week this week about a long term for Dansby and that more talks are scheduled for next week. Both sides have stated that they would like to get a
new deal in place before the July 15th deadline in order to not only free up cap space but also keep Dansby in Arizona for the foreseeable future. If a deal can't be reached, Dansby would play out this season (with $8 million guaranteed) and then be a free agent. Reports have surfaced recently that Dansby and his agent purposed a contract that would pay him about $9 million a season, but the Cardinals obviously didn't agree with that amount.
Speculation has been rampant since Dansby was franchised concerning how much it would cost to lock him up long term. Most people point to Calvin Pace's contract of 6 years for $42 million with $21.5 million guaranteed and think that Dansby's contract should be slightly north of those numbers. There another group (myself included) that thinks the Jets well overpaid for Pace and Somers points to the contracts recently signed by Seattle's Lofa Tatupa (six year extension, $40 million of new money, $18 million guaranteed), or Chicago's Lance Briggs (six years, $36 million, $13 guaranteed) as more reasonable barometers.
So, does anyone think that they'll get a deal done before the deadline and if so, what are the numbers? If they do, which I'd put as a serious long shot, I'd have to say something very close to Tatupa's contract.