Cardinals 2006 Season Blog

[Suicane]

POST IMPERIAL BOWL NEWS:

Well, Adam Land handed in his papers today, he's done. I'm gonna miss the big lug, he was oh so improtant for us this year and it's gonna take alot to replace him but Albert Covington is a solid young player with alot of potential. Adam came in a gave us the shot in the arm we needed on defense, especially in the AFC Title game. He complimented Louie Maldanado perfectly and really made things 10x harder on opposing QB's.

FB Zachary Coward also called it a career this week. Zach has been a part of our team from day 1 and the guys in the locker room are really gonna miss him. He never put up big stats but he had the ability to do it if called upon, and he never made a stink because he wasn't called upon that often, just a class guy who will be part of this organization as long as he wants.

Raphael Shine is the final guy on our team who packed things in following the season. Raphael was a reserve CB and a solid player for us in the nickel and dime schemes, but the most important thing he did for us was step in and return kicks when we really needed a solid kick returner. He had 1 kick return for a TD and saved it for the biggest game of all, our week 17 matchup against Louisiana with the division title on the line, there can't be any better way to cap a career.

[Suicane]

STAFF HIRING NEWS:

We resigned Head Coach Tyrell Nichols to a 5 year $23.5 Million dollar deal. This is alot of money indeed but Tyrell has been the brainchild behind this team and there was no way we were gonna let him go. Tyrell wanted to stay, and we wanted him to stay, so reaching a deal was easy.

We went out and signed a real good young defensive mind in Ross Brandon to be our Defensive Coordinator. Ross is only 39 but he comes in with a fresh, upbeat and attacking attitude on the defensive side of the ball. We feel like he's gonna be a big part of this team for a long, long time.

[Suicane]

FRANCHISE PLAYER NEWS:

Well, we designated SLB Robert Yates today. There was no question we were gonna do this. Robert is a huge part of our defense and we had no intention of letting him go. Robert has had some injury problems in his first 2 years but this year he was able to start all 16 games and really added so much to our defense, racking up 90 tackles. Now we have to sit down with him and hammer out a long term deal.

[Suicane]

PRE FREE AGENCY NEWS:
First things first, we decided to cut DE Roscoe Lee. Roscoe is in his 11th year and has been with us since the beggining.
He was due almost $2 Million dollars this year and it simply wasn't fiscaly feasible for us to keep him on at that number. I'll always remember Week 17 of the 2003 season were we needed a win and were short on DE's. Roscoe stepped in to the starting role and picked up 6 tackles and a sack as we defeated Texas and clinched the division title. We wish Roscoe the best of luck this season and know he will catch on somewhere.

We also had some contract renogotiations we wanted to get done, the biggest of which was Charles Yon. Charles was injured for much of this season and realized that his cap hit was affecting the team. Alot of people thing of C-Dog as a me first player, but thats hardly the case. We were able to come to an agreement that appeases both sides right now, a 3 Year, $7.4 Million dollar deal. This really helps our cap out for the time being, although nobody would be shocked if the 2 sides eventually sit down and work out another deal when C-Dog returns to prime time form this year.

Another big issue that needed to be resolved was the contract of LT Dan Dale. Dan was selected by us in the 12th round of the dispersal draft and has slowly evolved into a monster Tackle, there was no way we could go thru the season with him in the final year of his deal. We reached a 5 year, $17 Million dollar deal with Dan and both sides are very pleased.

Albert Covington was another guy in his last year who we wanted to extend, and a 3 year $2.9 million dollar deal sealed things up. We fully expect Albert to be our #2 DE this year, returning to the spot he held before Adam Land came in last year.

Darrin Felts was the last guy we wanted to shore up. Not alot of people gave Darrin alot of credit the past 2 seasons but the facts are the facts and Darrin has helped lift this teams running game when we were seriously concerned about it. We agreed on a 4YR, $3.2M deal with him and are pleased as punch that he's locked up long term for us.

[Cringer]

STOP GOING SO FAST!!!!!

[sovstar]

I like the word 'blog'. blooooooooooooooooooooog

Shit.. can I even post in this?

[Suicane]

YOU GUYS ARE RUINING MY BLOOOOOOOG!!@!@!

[Suicane]

Well, Cringer and Jeff posted in my blog, and then I got mad. No FA news yet.

[sovstar]

I pissed off the OCD man!

[Suicane]

Dear blog,

You have gone to shit.

:cry:
Im upset
:cry:



Sadness sandwich.

[Suicane]

FREE AGENCY NEWS

First thing we did was resign RB Kent Burkhart to a 1YR, $560K Deal. Kent was a gut we picked up at the end of last year when Dominique 'vasoline hands' Winton was released. Kent has pretty good skills and while not a premiere back, he has the ability to do some things for us coming off the bench. We're glad he's back with us.

Our next move was twofold, first we signed MLB Thomas Heilman to a 1YR, $950K contract. We felt like this was a huge signing as Thomas has a ton of upside, he's a stellar cover guy, smart, fast, durable and can really rush the passer. I was dumbfounded as to why this guy didn't more attention than he did but he fits our scheme and belief that you can never have too many LB's to a tee. This kid has never seen alot of playing time but I believe we've found a diamond in the ruff with him. While we would have liked to lock him up longer, just getting him on the squad was a big first step and we will no doubt address a long term contract at seasons end.

To make room for the addition of Thomas we had to make a tough decision and cut WLB Sean Reeves. Sean was a 3rd round pick for us last season and while we see some potential in him, it was clear that he was not gonna make the team, so we decided to cut bait and let him go. Sean is a good kid but he needs time to develop, something we can't afford to give him. He was picked up by Murfreesboro a few weeks later however so he will be returning to St. Louis this season for 1 game at least.

Moving on we still felt the need to clear some space up at LB, and we furthered that effort by trading 3rd year guy Paul Reese to Anchorage in exchange for a 4th round draft pick next season. Paul was our 2nd round pick in 2004 but has seen very limited playing time in his 2 seasons with us. Even with the move to the 3-4 last season he was not used very much. Paul is a solid cover guy who is still developing and has a good future in this league, it just wasn't with us.


Next up were a couple of renogotiations we were looking forwarding to getting done.
First up was Robert Yates. Despite giving him the Franchise Designation we really wanted to lock him up long term.
He and his Agent, Kenny Noyes played hardball with us but in the end we settled on a 5YR, $31M dollar deal, a huge deal indeed, maybe too much money, but we wanted to show a solid commitment to our core players, and we certainly hope this does that.

Next was MLB Noel Daniels, we extended him to a 4YR, $21.9M deal. As the MLB he has been the heart and soul of our LB unit and Defense since day 1 of this franchise. He's recorded over 100 sacks in each of our 3 seasons and is very much a team leader both on and off the field, this was a big deal for us.

Back to bringing in new players, we signed WR Marshall Talley and FB Philip Sundberg from Fresno.
Marshalls deal netted him $1.2M over 2 years and Phillips was a 3YR, $3.1M deal.
Marhsall is a pure return specialist, but Kick returns is where he really shines. He had a 28.4 KR average last year and we really wanted to solidify our return game this offseason, his addition really helps that.
Sundberg meanwhile is a career backup who will serve that same role here with us but brings a dominating run block ability to our team, he's not a stud but he will be a very usefull cog in our machine, he's already hitting it off with Darrin Felts.

SS Scott Gallant was brought in from Fresno as well, we inked him to a 1YR, $530K deal. Scott has some developing to do but his pass cover abilities fit in well with our scheme, he's a also a good friend of Charles Yon and the 2 are really looking forward to being on the field together.

Our next move was another trade. We shipped our 7(32) in this years draft and our 3rd rounder in 2008 to Murfreesboro in exchange for a couple of role players who we feel fit our team very nicely. The key to the deal for us was SILB, 7 year vet Lance Parson who brings a big time run stopping game and pass cover ability to us. He will likely see alot of time on the field this year in running situations as he compliments last years #1 pick Leon McGrew very nicely. Lance has a 3 year deal at about $800K per year which is also very appealing. His lack of playing time in Murfreesboro was clearly frustrating him and getting out of there and on to the defending world champions seems to have stoked his fires. We look forward to seeing him on the field in a Cardinal uniform. The 2nd part of the trade was RB Emmitt Conner who is a shifty little 3rd down back who is also a very solid kick returner.

[Suicane]

WEEK 3

Hello Mr. Blog, it's been awhile and I havn't been real good at updating you, im sorry.

Well, we started 0-2 and I was really dissapointed.

I think I screwed around with the running game too much. I tried to improve our situation so that we could power run more and control games that way, but truth is I was scared of McMurray screwing things up.

Well today I decided that since I didn't trade him I might as well take the reigns off and put my faith in him and he led me to a big road win.

I'm happy with todays game but we got a big game against Norfolk coming up, it's our home opener and i'm looking forward to being at home finaly this year.[/b]

[Suicane]

WEEK 5

Well, what can I say. C-Dog blew out his knee. He was the face of this franchise pretty much from day 1. In the coming weeks I know i'll get some hope back inside of me, but right now i'm just so damn sad. He's had injury troubles his whole career but I always hoped that something like this wouldn't happen to him.

At least I won the game, I'm now 2-3 with a home game against Houston coming up. These next 2 weeks are huge as I have Houston and Louisiana. If I can win both those games i'm right back into a position of power.

The bad news is that besides Charles I also lost Marshall Cuomo and Dan Dale, my 2 best O-Linemen, for over a month. :cry:

Im in a real bad way here Mr. Blog, please help.

Current Mood= :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Warhammer]

But you won! At least if I didn't win, I hurt you!

[Suicane]

Are you on my enemies list yet? Well you are now. Next time Mr. Hammer, next time.