A Cards Collapse? Don't Count on It

If Arizona Cardinals fans hadn't known better, they might have spent last weekend thinking they'd gone back in time. To when, doesn't really matter. Anything before, say, 2008, would be about the same: bad.

Rewind 10 seasons, for example. The club was coming off a 3-13 campaign in 2000 and about to either purge or lose the core stars of a roster that two years earlier helped deliver the franchise its first playoff berth since 1998, and its second postseason victory since 1947. Bye-bye Jake Plummer, Simeon Rice, Aeneas Williams and Adrian Murrell, among others. Turned out, no one really missed them.

The Cards just went on being the Cards.

Fast forward to present day. Last month, Kurt Warner retired after one of the greatest quarterback careers in NFL history. And less than 24 hours after the free-agency bell sounded Friday, linebacker Karlos Dansby and free safety Antrel Rolle signed lucrative contracts with Miami and the New York Giants, respectively, while wide receiver Anquan Boldin was traded to Baltimore for a package of draft picks.

Just like that, a quartet of players that proved pivotal in the team's turnaround and surprising run to the Super Bowl two seasons ago were out.

Next-day headline in The Arizona Republic: Cards off-season begins in reverse

Maybe so, but don't be too sure the franchise is headed backward to its dreadful, dried-up days in the desert. The Cardinals may have taken some hits this offseason, but it's important not to forget about two contract extensions that did get done last week; the ones that locked up Coach Ken Whisenhunt, along with General Manager Rod Graves, for four more years. Whisenhunt's extension reportedly will pay him around $6 million per season, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in the NFL.

"What the team has accomplished in his three seasons as head coach is a testament to the talent and hard work of Ken and his assistant coaches," team president MIchael Bidwill said in announcing the extensions. "We couldn't be more excited that both Rod and Ken will continue to lead the team for the foreseeable future and build upon the foundation they helped establish."

Give the Bidwill family credit for not messing around with Whisenhunt and Graves, a duo that pointed these once wingless (and foul) fowls in the right direction. They have a plan. It may not be perfect -- some events have taken place (such as Warner's retirement) to challenge it -- but the organization now has a solid infrastructure and in Whisenhunt, the first Cards coach to get a second contract since the club moved from St. Louis in 1988, an admired and achieving leader out front. He will stay the course.

That Arizona reached the first Super Bowl in franchise history in Whisenhunt's second season was a remarkable feat, but by defending the NFC West title in '09, returning to the playoffs and winning that epic overtime against the league's hottest team, the Green Bay Packers, Whisenhunt cemented his credibility. The man is now 4-2 in the playoffs after inheriting a franchise with one postseason victory in 61 years.

[Worth noting: the Cardinals are one of just two teams, along with Baltimore, to win playoff games the last two seasons, and one of just three -- throw in San Diego -- to reach the divisional round in 'both 08 and '09.]

Now comes a tough offseason. Whisenhunt came to Arizona from Pittsburgh, one of the most pragmatic, fiscally responsible and -- oh yes, successful -- franchises in the league. The Steelers do not overpay. Whisenhunt, no doubt, bought into that approach. Not that the Bidwills, notoriously cheap in the past, would object.

But in fairness to Arizona ownership and the reputation for frugality, the Bidwill family has their crown-jewel stadium now and has reaped some on-field rewards of running their business the right way.

OK, now back to the bad news.

The team did not plan for Warner to suffer a concussion (and that wicked blindside hit in the playoff loss at New Orleans) that led the future Hall of Famer to walk away from the second year of a two-year, $25 million contract. Tough break. Those happen.

But then came the defections in free agency. The Cardinals could have shelled out a bunch of fat contracts, but so far only Chicago has done that. Graves had some decisions to make.


Dansby led the team in tackles its two playoff seasons, but he's never been as much as a Pro Bowl alternate and the Dolphins are paying him like Patrick Willis. The Cards offered Rolle similar money as the Giants, but he wanted to come east and play in a bigger market. The bolting of Boldin, the franchise's all-time receptions leader, was a foregone conclusion. He's never been happy with his contract situation or playing rhythm guitar to Larry Fitzgerald's lead.

Listening to Graves address the team's impending free agent issues at the combine, you got the sense all of this was going to happen.

"We have a lot of areas to address, and it has to be a situation that fits for us," Graves said in Indianapolis, less than a week before free agency began. "We can't keep them all and I have a lot of confidence in our coaching staff that whomever we end up with, we will get those guys ready to play."

Added Whisenhunt: "We'll be in position to compete."

Maybe not for a championship -- at least not in '10 -- but Whisenhunt, 31-23 record in three seasons, isn't going to panic. The personnel department has a rising star in Director Steve Keim and the team really needs him to stand out now. The Cards have to hit on some mid-round draft picks (ala Steve Breaston and Tim Hightower) and be prepped with the sort of contingency plans like the one that brought Kerry Rhodes, a solid free safety, to Arizona in a trade with the New York Jets just one day after losing Rolle to the Giants. And, of course, much rests on the shoulder of quarterback heir Matt Leinart (or whoever else the club might chase at the position).

Whisenhunt, 48, knows what this must look like to outsiders.

"We still have five months ahead of us before we take the [training camp] field in Flagstaff. There are a lot of things that can happen between now and then," Whisenhunt said this week. "I think it's tough to make judgments this early on in the preseason."

Yes, they're the Cardinals, but these aren't your mom and dad's Cardinals anymore.

Because Whisenhunt has earned our respect, the team he's leading has earned the benefit of the doubt.