Joey Porter Agrees to Deal With Cardinals

Unrestricted free agent linebacker Joey Porter agreed to a three-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals Friday. No financial details were immediately available.

"It is exciting on many levels," head coach Ken Whisenhunt told the team's official Web site. "Two areas that come to mind are his productivity on the field, [because] getting 26½ sacks over the last two years is pretty impressive, especially considering last year with not even playing a full season. Also the mentality he brings, it's something we have made great progress with as a team.

"Having another veteran player, who has had great success in this league, to contribute to that will only help us in an area defensively where we want to improve."

Arizona found itself desperately in need of help at outside linebacker with Chike Okeafor and playoff hero Bertrand Berry both unrestricted free agents.

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Porter will likely line up opposite Clark Haggans in Arizona's 3-4 scheme. Those two were teammates from 2000-06 in Pittsburgh before Porter left for Miami. Haggans joined the Cardinals prior to the 2008 season.

After losing in the NFC divisional round to New Orleans, Arizona has undergone a whirlwind offseason. Starting quarterback Kurt Warner announced his retirement on Jan. 29, and the team also lost free agent Karlos Dansby to Miami and released safety Antrell Rolle, who then signed with the Giants. Arizona also raised some eyebrows earlier in the week when it signed QB Derek Anderson, cast aside by the Browns, to compete with Matt Leinart as the team's 2010 starter.

Porter, who had nine sacks in 2009 and 17 1/2 sacks in 2008, also visited the Redskins before choosing the Cardinals. Current Washington linebacker London Fletcher expressed his desire to bring Porter into the fold during a team workout.

"He's a play-making linebacker -- outside linebacker," Fletcher said. "He had nine sacks last year? That's a lot of sacks for an outside linebacker. He didn't even play a whole lot toward the end of the year. So that's still a lot of pressure on the quarterback."

But it's Arizona that will get the benefit of Porter's pass-rushing ability for 2010 and beyond.