According to a report by the Arizona Republic, agent Drew Rosenhaus is apparently to blame for the mess that currently is Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin’s contract situation.

Boldin is under contract for two more years with the Cardinals, at $2.75 million this year and $3 million in 2010, a deal Rosenhaus renegotiated in 2005.

Rosenhaus pushed for a new deal, however, after the Cardinals re-signed Fitzgerald to a four-year, $40 million extension before last season. The Cardinals told Boldin they would try to oblige but first had to attend to new deals for Dansby and Pro Bowl safety Adrian Wilson.

Boldin, under advice from Rosenhaus, demanded a trade last summer and said he would never re-sign with the Cardinals. His position softened in the ensuing months and, after helping the Cardinals reach Super Bowl XLIII, dialogue resumed about a new contract.

But through it all, Boldin’s reputation took a hit, although his performance on the field never came into question. He finished the 2008 regular season with 89 receptions for 1,038 yards and 11 touchdowns.

If this is true, it would make sense why Boldin plans to fire Rosenhaus and is now seeking new representation. Maybe Boldin would be willing to take a modest pay raise (whatever that entails) from the Cards, but Rosenhaus kept pushing for more. Either way, with Rosenhaus out of the way it seems like Boldin is a safe bet to stay in AZ. In fact, Boldin might even report to minicamp sometime this week as a sign of good faith to the team.

With his contract talks reaching a stalemate with the Cardinals, receiver Anquan Boldin plans to fire agent Drew Rosenhaus.

Rosenhaus, who represents more NFL players than any other agent, had tried pressuring the Cardinals into trading the 28-year-old receiver.

“Regarding Anquan Boldin, let me say that I have great respect for him. I’m hopeful we can work this out and he can return to the Rosenhaus Sports family in the near future. We are proud to continue to represent his brother, D.J. Boldin,” Rosenhaus said in a statement to ESPN.com. “We would also like to take this opportunity to announce that we have signed Will Allen to a 2-year contract extension with the Dolphins worth $16.2 million. We are pleased to announce today that we have re-signed New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey [to a representation agreement].”

Boldin reached out to other agents in recent weeks, according to a source. He spoke with Kennard McGuire, CAA agents Tom Condon and Ben Dogra, and two of Fitzgerald’s agents, Eugene Parker and Paul Lawrence.

Under NFLPA rules, a player must wait five days after firing his agent before hiring a new one.

Boldin apparently didn’t like the way Rosenhaus was going about negotiations with the Cardinals, although it’s hardly the agent’s fault if a team doesn’t want to re-work a contract when the player still has two years remaining on the current one. Still, it’s interesting that Rosenhaus has lost a big client like Boldin. Normally, players are seeking Rosenhaus’ negotiation tactics, not firing him because of them.

According to the Arizona Republic, Anquan Boldin’s agent Drew Rosenhaus has submitted a contract offer to the Cardinals, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the team is willing to negotiate at this time.

Rosenhaus said contrary to speculation, Boldin is not seeking a deal worth $10 million a year, which is what teammate Larry Fitzgerald is receiving. The recent offer is for less, Rosenhaus said.

An NFL source familiar with the proposal said the deal averaged just under $10 million per season.

Rosenhaus declined to say when he made the proposal to the Cardinals. He has discussed the proposal with Graves, he said, but the Cardinals have not responded with a counteroffer.

It could be the range of $8 million to $9 million a year on average. T.J. Houshmandzadeh signed a five-year, $40 million deal with Seattle this spring, with $15 million guaranteed.

Dallas traded for Roy Williams last year, then signed him to a five-year, $45 million deal with $20 million guaranteed.

If we’re talking solely about contract numbers, Boldin is definitely worth the $9 mil a year that Housh is getting. But it’s obviously not that simple for the Cards to just re-negotiate a deal like that for Boldin considering they’re already paying Fitzgerald $10 million a year. Plus, and this is a biggie, Boldin is still under contract for two more years. The Cardinals aren’t obligated to do anything with his contract if they don’t want to.

Nevertheless, at least the lines of communication are open between Rosenhaus and the Cardinals. We’ll see what Arizona’s countermove is.

On Tuesday, a report surfaced that Cardinals’ wideout Larry Fitzgerald was willing to restructure his contract in efforts to keep teammate Anquan Boldin in Arizona. But apparently that story was a bit overblown.

From Rotoworld:

Asked about possibly restructuring his contract Wednesday, Larry Fitzgerald said, “I don’t know where that came from.”

Fitzgerald spoke to Rotoworld’s Gregg Rosenthal among a media throng Wednesday morning and seemed perplexed by the story, but didn’t exactly shoot it down. “Someone asked me if I’d be willing to do something to help the team and I said absolutely. … This is an amazing feeling and I’ll do anything I have to do to get back to this point.” It sounds like Fitzgerald is open to the possibility, but he was just answering a question vaguely. Ultimately, his agent will have the biggest say in the matter and probably hopes Fitz will decline to discuss the matter more publicly.

Okay, so apparently some overzealous reporter ran with a story that didn’t exist. It was a nice idea and maybe it’ll still happen, but for now the Boldin-contract situation is still as much of a mess as it was in preseason.

According to ESPN.com, Cardinals’ GM Rod Graves says he plans to meet with Boldin after the season in attempts to resolve the issue. But money talks in the end and if the team doesn’t pony up, this situation won’t be resolved any time soon.

According to NFL Network’s Adam Schefter, Larry Fitzgerald might be willing to restructure his deal in order for the Cardinals to keep wideout Anquan Boldin this offseason.

Questions surround Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin and his future in Arizona. But one of the keys to it could turn out to be Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

Just as Fitzgerald accepted a four-year, $40 million deal from Arizona last year when he could have made considerably more on the open market so he could leave the Cardinals cap space, Fitzgerald would like to help the Cardinals again.

Fitzgerald is willing to restructure his contract so that the Cardinals can redo Boldin’s and keep him in Arizona long-term. Boldin wants his deal redone and said during the season that he never would re-sign with Arizona again, but many around the league believe that as long as the Cardinals make a sufficient offer, then Boldin will agree to stay.

Plus, it will be especially hard to turn down when Fitzgerald is willing to make the selfless offer that he is to make it possible for Boldin to stay. The two compose the game’s top receiving duo and their salaries also could be tied to one another.

Everyone has seen that Fitzgerald is one of the games top players this post-season. Now they’re about to see how selfless he can be this off-season.

If this is true, what a selfless act by Fitzgerald. He knows what it took for the Cards to reach the Super Bowl and he understands that with Boldin on the other side, his production rises. Some wideouts only care about numbers, but Fitz just proved that he cares about winning above all else.

He’s certainly an easy athlete to root for.