The Arizona Cardinals paid Jermaine Gresham now they need to utilize him

While we have not received anything concrete yet for the Jermaine Gresham contract, the numbers being floated around, seven million a year, show what it is going to take in order to keep some of the key players in the Arizona Cardinals ninth ranked NFL offense.

If Gresham is at seven million a season, it would put him as the 12th highest paid tight end in the NFL.

However, through no fault of his own, Gresham was 26th in the NFL in receptions among tight ends, 28th in yards and a tied with a host of tight ends for 29th with only two touchdowns on the season.

This is why the contract is curious.

Is it a signal of what the Cardinals think Gresham can produce like moving forward?

He is a solid blocking tight end, but no one would say that is his forte as a player.

No, Gresham can be a quality NFL weapon at the tight end position.

In the first six games of the season, Gresham was targeted a paltry 10 times for six receptions for 59 yards. That was in six games... SIX!

Over the last ten games, when the offense started to find their groove outside of the scoreless Seahawks debacle, Gresham was targeted 51 times. That five targets a game resulted in a solid tight end slash of: 31 catches for 332 yards and two touchdowns.

While the numbers of 3.1 catches for 33.2 yards and 0.2 touchdowns per game are not great, it extrapolates out 50 catches for 531 yards and three touchdowns, which moves him into the top 20 of all tight ends in all categories.

If the Cardinals are going to pay Gresham like he is a top ten tight end in the NFL, then it is on them utilize him in that manner, or this could be a waste of resources.