According to NFL Network's Adam Schefter, the Arizona Cardinals will place the franchise tag on Karlos Dansby. We talked about how important Dansby was just five days ago and ROTB's plan to keep him was the put the tag on him.
As we said earlier, that'll mean that Dansby will count 9.6 million against the cap in 2009 but the Cardinals will have until the middle of July to negotiate a new deal. This will allow Rod Graves to shift his attention to other key free agents such as Kurt Warner, J.J Arrington, Bertrand Berry and maybe even Antonio Smith. Once the free agent fires die down, Graves will have to get Dansby locked up long term though.Do you like the move?
There's no official word from the team yet (offices were closed yesterday) but Shefter is about as reliable as they get so we'll assume this is an accurate report.
Update: According to Kent Somers, this is official and the Cardinals used the non-exclusive tag. That basically means that Dansby can still negoitate with any team in the league and the Cardinals would have the first right of refusal if another team offers him a contract. The kicker is though, if the Cardinals decline to match they receive two first round picks as compensation. Dansby's agent, Kirk Wood, has been in negotiations but the two sides are considered to be close to terms.