Arizona Cardinals decide to tag defensive end, Calais Campbell – NFL News Update
In a hope of keeping defensive end, Calais Campbell, with the team for a long time, Arizona Cardinals have placed their franchise tag on the player ensuring his stay at the franchise for at least the next season.
The decision, which was already expected, was announced on Friday, March 2, 2012, by Cardinals’ general manager, Rod Graves, who also expressed his desire of keeping the player for more years.
Campbell, who started his professional National Football League (NFL) career with Cardinals in 2008, has been playing as the team’s regular starter for the last three seasons.
Campbell is yet to sign under the tag and is still open to offers from any other team. If any teams bids for him, the Cards will then have an opportunity to match or exceed that offer to retain Campbell or else they could lose the defensive end.
If Campbell decides to sign under the tag, which is very much likely, he will receive a salary of $10.6 million in 2012.
While announcing the decision to tag the player, Graves said that offering a long-term deal to Campbell is the primary objective.
He also said that assigning the tag will provide both the player and the team management some room for negotiating a new contract in the months to come.
He said:
“To be clear, reaching a long-term deal that will keep Calais with the Cardinals for years to come remains our primary objective. This move today allows us the opportunity to continue working with Calais and his agent toward that goal and that's exactly
what we will do."
In the last NFL season, Campbell recorded his career-best 72 tackles and 8.0 sacks in 16 games.
Campbell had already indicated that he was expecting Cardinals to offer him the franchise tag. He seemed satisfied with the decision, but expressed little reservations over not receiving any security for the future.
Nevertheless, he was fine with idea of receiving the tag and it is expected that he will accept the offer and will not hit the free agency.
After officially getting the tag, he said:
"Well, I'm happy to be a Cardinal for at least one more year but I look forward to the possibility of getting a long-term deal done as well."
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