Plus the Rams just signed CB Sam Shields as well. A quick check tells us that the Rams now have Marcus Peters, Aqib Talib and Sam Shields as CBs 1,2,3. While as of right now the Cardinals have Patrick Peterson, Lou Young and Brandon Williams.
Meanwhile the Cardinals wait until 6 days before March 14th to ask Tyrann Mathieu to take a significant paycut. That leaves precariously little time to negotiate and a sour taste in TM's and his agents' mouths---which likely means---no negotiation and thus Mathieu will not be given his March 14th roster bonus, the Cardinals will release him and receive zero in return (while the Chiefs and Broncos at least get draft picks for Peters and Talib). Classic. Moreover, releasing Mathieu does not create additional cap space until June 1st---which does not help the Cardinals one iota in free agency when all they have is $20M going in and zero QBs on the roster. Obviously, the Cardinals are going to have to create more cap room with a variety of other moves.
The PR hit the Cardinals could potentially incur here if Mathieu goes and shines for another team (a la Calais Campbell) is regrettable. Mathieu will be super motivated to prove that he was worth every penny of what the Cardinals signed him for. In my opinion, Mathieu was dispirited last year and was capable of playing much better than he did. He, like Patrick Peterson, was coddled and enabled to play below the highest of standards and expectations. Put Mathieu this year with a coaching staff who hold their players to higher standards and he is going to thrive. The irony is that Steve Wilks, Al Holcomb and David Merritt are going to demand such standards and create quite a buzz. Unfortunately, it looks they will not have the chance to do so with the Honey Badger, because of the nature of the 2nd contract Steve Keim authored following the 2015 season....at a time when Mathieu still had another year left on his rookie contract.
I dont know if they are sleeping or what but certainly the could resign some of our players
