Cardinals added three defensive men with new contracts

Restricted free agent tight end Ben Patrick is to wear back his No. 89 Arizona Cardinals jersey for the 2010 season as the team has signed a one-year contract with him. Similar thing happened to safety Hamza Abdullah and fullback Nehemiah Broughton.


A seventh-round draft pick out of Delaware in 2007, Patrick has 30 career receptions for 323 yards and four touchdowns. He also has five postseason receptions, including a touchdown catch in the 2009 Super Bowl. All of Patrick’s first three career seasons were spent with the Cardinals, while six-year veteran Abdullah joined the Cardinals last December and played in only one regular-season game but took part in both postseason games.

As for Broughton, he spent last season with the Minnesota Vikings on practice squad without playing any game. He was previously signed by the Cardinals on Jan. 5 and on Tuesday the Cardinals signed his exclusive rights contract to get him back from the free agent market.

Saints are looking for Des in free agent market

Finishing the past season with the Super Bowl title, the New Orleans Saints found it still necessary to improve their team for a new season. They are as active on the free agent market as any other team and their focus is on defensive ends.


According to Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, the St. Louis Rams defensive ends James Hall and Leonard Little both are of interest to the Saints. Hall just finished a visit on Friday and Little was expected to have visit next week.

The Saints released veteran Charles Grant last week and allowed linebacker Scott Fujita to sign a three-year, $14 million deal with the Cleveland Browns. They could start looking at players with expired contracts on other teams, but their main target would still be the defensive ends, as they still have quite few choices on linebackers.

According to Loomis, the Saints could choose a linebacker from those still wearing Saints jerseys like 2009 draft pick Stanley Arnoux, 2009 undrafted free agent Jonathan Casillas, two-year pro Jo-Lonn Dunbar, 2007 draft pick Marvin Mitchell, three Year Pro Anthony Waters and veteran Troy Evans, to group with middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma and weakside linebacker Scott Shanle as starting linebackers.

Falcons added veteran CB Robinson to roster

Unrestricted free agent cornerback Dunta Robinson was brought in the private jet of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank to have a visit with the team. It was his first visit since becoming a free agent and also the last as he is now officially a Falcon after signing a six-year contract.

“This is something I’ve always dreamed about growing up in Athens, Ga.,” Robinson said. “This was the first professional team that I wanted to play for. I’m home. This is where I need to be. Here is where I’m most comfortable.”

The money is also what he’s dreamed of. The multiyear contract is worth $57 million, including an approximately $22.5 million in guaranteed money. And the way he was signed was similar to the way running back Michael Turner was signed two years ago when Blank, general manager Thomas Dimitroff and coach Mike Smith had Turner visit to Atlanta and persuaded him to sign a six-year contract in early March 2009.

Once in Falcons jersey, Robinson is likely to take part in the team’s mini-camp in May as a starting cornerback along with Brian Williams, who signed a new one-year contract with the Falcons last week. And Coach Smith’s expectation of Robinson is simply to jam the opponent’s No. receiver at the line of scrimmage before dropping into coverage.

Texans found it challenging to re-sign WR Walter

Although the Houston Texans would like to keep the pending unrestricted free agent wide receiver Kevin Walter in the Texans jersey, they may feel that re-signing him is beyond their ability, according to the team’s general Rick Smith.


“We would like to have Kevin back,” Smith said, noting he had talked to Walter’s agent. “He is an important part of our football team and we would like to (keep him.) Unfortunately the thing about free agency now is, you can’t keep everybody. When you talk about putting a football team together and structuring your team and trying to improve and get better, you’ve got to make some tough decisions. And sometimes, you’ve got to let players go that you otherwise wouldn’t want to. That’s just a part of it.”

Walter will turn 29 in August and caught 53 passes for 611 yards and two TDs in 14 starts for Houston last season, missing two games with a hamstring injury. However, the Texans may not feel much pain if Walter really chooses to depart because they still have Jacob Jones, Andre Davis and David Anderson in wide receiver depth.

Steelers’ safety Clark will join free agent market

According to Yahoo Sports, the Pittsburgh Steelers seem to have made no big progress in retaining safety Ryan Clark, who is to be a free agent on Friday, the deadline for free agency, with no deal being done in time.


Steelers director of football operations Kevin Colbert has identified Clark as a core player the team wants to re-sign. And the Steelers do have been discussing a contract with Clark’s representative, but by so far there has been nothing concrete to indicate that a deal is imminent as talks haven’t progressed quickly.

Successfully signing back nose guard Casey Hampton with a three-year contract and retaining kicker Jeff Reed with a franchise tag last week, the Steelers, however, is still in slow progress while talking with Clark about his new contract. They can only now let him test the free agent market with hope that no other team would offer better deal than the Steelers and Clark would change his mind to wear back the Steelers jersey.

Next free agent for Steelers to retain: Safety Clark

After keeping nose guard Casey Hampton with a new $21.3 million contract and kicker Jeff Reed with a franchise tag, the Pittsburgh Steelers turn to focus on negotiating new deal with another free agent: safety Ryan Clark.


"Ryan is one of the three starters … we’ve taken care of one, moved closer with another and we’ll continue to talk," Steelers director of football operations Kevin Colbert said. "With all of these guys, they want to stay, we want them to stay. Usually, when you have that type of mindset on both sides, it helps get deals done."

According to his agent Joel Turner, Clark is willing to remain in Steelers jersey even at a slightly reduced salary. And it seems likely that the Steelers would offer a bit more for the safety who is the best not only in unrestricted free agency but also restricted free agency.