Cardinals safety Antrel Rolle made the Pro Bowl as an alternate, but even he must know that’s not going to receive the $12.1 million he’s scheduled to next season.
That huge number (salary plus bonus) was put into Rolle’s contract to force a renegotiation. Rolle said recently to the Arizona Repbublic that he won’t take a pay cut, but it’s unclear if he meant a paycut from $12 million or a pay cut from his 2009 salary.
Either way, it will be a tricky deal for the Cardinals to close. They are already paying safety Adrian Wilson a ton of money and Rolle is not the same caliber of player as Wilson.
Rolle’s career has been up and down, but he’d love to hit the open market this offseason when few young quality players are available. He could drive a hard bargain.