KARLOS WILL GIVE CARDS A CRACK AT KEEPING HIM

With so much attention centering on the futures of Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and receiver Anquan Boldin, it’s easy to forget that linebacker Karlos Dansby will be a free agent as well. Dansby received the franchise tag in 2008, and the $8.065 million guaranteed salary that went along with it. This year, he wants a long-term deal. But he told Adam Schein and John Riggins of Sirius NFL Radio’s The Sirius Blitz that no talks have started, yet. “Not at the moment,” Dansby said. “Hopefully pretty soon. I thought we’d [have] at least discussed something, started to put something on paper, but we haven’t done anything yet. We don’t have long. We’ve only got a couple of weeks, man, to get everybody situated.” If Dansby ends up hitting the market, he says that he wants to see what happens with other big-name defensive players before doing a deal of his own. “I kind of want to see what everybody else is going to do,” Dansby said. “I feel like I’m one of the elite players in the league if you ask me. I want to see what the other guys in my position are going to get such as Ray Lewis and Bart Scott. You’ve got Terrell Suggs out there. You’ve got guys like Albert Haynesworth that is going to take the market up to a-whole-nother level. I want to see where these guys are going to take the market before I do anything. If the deadline passes, then we’re in a bidding war now so it’s a beautiful situation to be in and it’s kind of stressful at the same time because you want to know where you’re going to be and make sure your family and everybody is taken care of.” That said, Dansby and his agent need to be prepared to move quickly, because the big money flows only for about a week or so. Dansby’s desire to see what these other players receive also will make it harder for Dansby to do a long-term deal with the Cardinals before hitting the market. Still, he says that the Cards will get the first crack at keeping him. “Arizona is up first. They gave me the first opportunity so they are the first ones I’m going to take a look at,” Dansby said. Still, he seems to be intrigued about the possibility of playing for a big-market team, and he doesn’t seem to be interested in being restricted for a second season by the franchise tag, even though by rule it would pay him a 120-percent raise over his 2008 salary. And that equates to $9.678 million for one season. “That’s going to be a tough pill to swallow,” he said of a second straight franchise tag. (We all should be so unfortunate.) “Like I said, I helped turn it around so I think I deserve a long term deal.” Another possibility for the Cardinals would be to apply the tag and then trade Dansby to a team that would give him a long-term deal. Regardless of what happens, decisions need to be made quickly. The deadline for applying the franchise tag is February 19. And that’s only 15 days away.