6-9-12: Arizona Cardinals Bird Droppings - Offseason Stuff

Time for todays links, with the main story being a look at the defense trying to get better at getting their hands on turnovers.

Holding onto ball a priority for Cardinals defense
No one with the Cardinals can provide the exact number of possible interceptions they dropped last season, so let's go with "staggering." That's the description used by strong safety Adrian Wilson, who knows how many balls he dropped. "I dropped six," he said. Six? Is he sure it wasn't just three and seemed like six? "Yea, I dropped six 'for-sures,' " Wilson said. And that's just Wilson. Others dropped interceptions, too, one reason the team finished with only 10. Only five teams had fewer, and just four had a worst interception rate per attempt (1.73 percent).

Word From the Birds Blog | Being careful in OTA work
The Seahawks lost a pair of organized team activities this week after the league and the Players Association deemed a previous OTA too rough. The league and the NFLPA are always on the lookout for such things. Over the years, various teams have been docked for similar violations. It even happened to the Cardinals and Dennis Green back in 2004, although the Cards lost a week of the strength and conditioning program by the time they were punished because OTAs had ended by then.

Three under-the-radar moves: Cardinals - NFC West Blog - ESPN
A look at three potentially significant under-the-radar offseason moves for each NFC West team, continuing with the Arizona Cardinals:

Arizona Sports News:

Arizona Diamondbacks win on a walk-off home run, beat Oakland Athletics
The Diamondbacks' comeback magic was a regular occurence last season. This year, it's come in small doses, if at all. Perhaps that's what made Friday night so special. Down six runs early in the game, the Diamondbacks kept chipping away, finally getting a key hit when it counted most. With two out in the ninth, Ryan Roberts belted a walk-off three-run home, the winning blast in the Diamondbacks' 9-8 win over the Oakland Athletics, a nice moment to start off a three-game interleague series at Chase Field.

Phoenix Coyotes lease deal approved by Glendale
After three years of troubles marked by bankruptcy and failed negotiations, the Phoenix Coyotes have a likely new owner who promises to keep the team in Phoenix under a $325 million taxpayer-funded agreement approved Friday afternoon by the Glendale City Council.

NFL News:

Patriots Reportedly Give Rob Gronkowski 6-Year Contract Extension - SBNation.com
Rob Gronkowski is a rich man. The Patriots reportedly gave him a six-year contract extension that includes $54 million in new money.

Saints Made New Offer To Drew Brees, According To Report - SBNation.com
The New Orleans Saints continue to work toward a new contract for superstar quarterback Drew Brees. To date, the team and Brees have been unable to find a comfortable middle ground in their negotiations after the QB was given the franchise tag to prevent him hitting the free agent market in March.

Broncos Playbook Is Now On Twitter, Thanks To DJ Williams - From Our Editors - SBNation.com
NFL teams are extremely protective of their playbooks. When you see a show like Hard Knocks and a player is about to be released by the team, the first thing they ask for is a copy of their playbook. The NFL is a highly secretive league and teams hold close to the vest things like their playbooks. Enter DJ Williams. The Denver Broncos linebacker has been in the league for eight years so he understands the paranoia around playbooks, which is why it was so surprising to see him post this image on Twitter:

Jaguaring Might Be The Worst Thing Ever - From Our Editors - SBNation.com
This just reeks of an attempt to make a thing out of something that's not a thing. But here we are, staring at a video of "Jaguaring." It's like Tebowing, I guess, except with a Jaguar-like pose. Dangit, Jacksonville ... stop this.

Ravens Won't Pursue Terrell Suggs' Contract After Injury - SBNation.com
The Baltimore Ravens confirmed they will not go after Terrell Suggs' money after the linebacker suffered an Achilles' injury during a game of basketball this offseason. Team owner Steve Bisciotti conducted a press conference where he was announcing a naming rights deal with Under Armour for their facility and confirmed to reporters that they will not pursue action against Suggs.

Peyton Manning lives in Mike Shanahan’s house in Denver | ProFootballTalk
Mike Shanahan won’t be coaching Peyton Manning with the Redskins, but he does have him as a tenant.

Chad Johnson released by Patriots; offered $69,000 to change name by porn website | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports
Here's a little quiz for you. If we told you that an NFL player received an offer for $69,000 to change his name by a porn website on the same day that his team released him, would you guess that the player in question was anybody but Chad Johnson?