Can't say a part of me isn't concerned that he may not be the same player coming back from this ACL and it is conerning thtat it is his 2nd knee injury. Thing is he came back as good as ever from the 1st knee injury and he LOVES the game and this team so I would get the deal done ASAP. He is the most important pending FA for next year that is core player who is a face of the franchise.
If I'm Keim & Disner HB & CC are the first two I get done, HB for the reasons I've stated and CC for CAP relief this year.
Linking HB and CC together is actually quite astute because one would think that in order to clear the cap space the team will need to sign HB to a long term lucrative contract, they would have to do something about CC's $15.25M cap hit. Unless, they backload the contract, which they are disinclined to do---which is why they are in the situation they are this year with CC.
However, in light of the rumors that the Cardinals had put CC on the trading block back in March and the fact that nothing has been done as yet about his current cap figure, it seems that the Cardinals want to see what kind of a year CC has this year before committing themselves to another contract with him.
It's curious too that HB and CC have the same agent in Tom Condon.
It would be great of Steve Keim and Mike Disner could do a package deal where they pay HB an average of $11-12M a year (with reasonable guarantees and incentives) and where they pay Campbell (who has just made $55M on his last contract and who will be 30 heading into the next one) a more team-friendly deal in the neighborhood of $6-7M a year. But, one has to wonder whether the Cardinals are willing to make both commitments.