Cardinals “hopeful” they can re-sign Calais Campbell and Tyrann Mathieu
By Hunter Cooke
The Arizona Cardinals will reportedly try to keep every piece from their dominant defense together.
The Cardinals have built one of the strongest defenses in the entire NFL. Their secondary is particularly good, with the cornerback tandem of Tyrann Mathieu and Patrick Peterson being the best in the league.
The Cards signed Mike Jenkins, and they’re looking at bringing in Chris Culliver, but according to a report from Pro Football Talk, they’d really like to resign Matheiu and defensive end Calais Campbell when both of their contracts are up next year.
General Manager Steve Keim said that they would remain “aggressive” in their contract negotiations, which we can only take as him meaning that Mathieu and Campbell are about to get paid next year.
You can’t blame the Cardinals for wanting to keep what they have together. The Cardinals have the pieces to put together a top five defense nationally, they just need to keep all of their players healthy. Mathieu is coming off an ACL injury, and they had at least ten members of their defense on the injury report by the last week of the regular season.
If the Cardinals are going to get better, they have to get healthy. They have the potential to be a premiere team in the NFL, if they keep everyone together. Regardless, it might not be a good idea to sign someone as injury prone as Mathieu to a long term contract. The Cards might be stocking up on cornerbacks, but Mathieu will likely still be the starter when the season begins.
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