Cardinals’ GM Rod Graves says that he still views Anquan Boldin as a core player and would like to extend his contract.
As reported by SI.com this week, the Cardinals would like to re-sign Boldin for less than the $10 million a year average they are paying Larry Fitzgerald. The team wants to stay in the $7 million to $9 million range, depending on how the contract is structured.
After the Super Bowl, Boldin backed away from a vow to never re-sign with the team, which the club viewed as a positive sign.
For now, the Cardinals are maintaining their stance of not trading Boldin, but that could change if talks with his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, go nowhere over the next month.
“We still recognize him (Boldin) as a core player and one that we would like to extend,” General Manager Rod Graves said, “but I think we have to remain open at all times to possibilities. To this point, we have not made any considerations for a trade, and we’re focused primarily on trying to make this relationship beneficial for our team.”
Rosenhaus declined to comment on the negotiations but did say that he and Boldin recently had positive talks with the Cardinals.
This situation seems to be changing week by week. First it looked like there would be no hope of Boldin staying in Arizona, now it looks like there’s no way the Cards will trade him. Either Boldin was told to play along so the Cards will have an easier time trying to find a trade partner, or his stance really has changed and he wants to remain in ‘Zona.
