FanHouse DominiqueFoxworth

Samari Rolle's stay in Baltimore appeared over when the team released the 12-year veteran cornerback on March 18. Nineteen days later, it looks like Rolle will end his career as a Raven after signing a four-year deal with Baltimore.

Rolle has spent the past four seasons with the Ravens, following a seven-year run in Tennessee. After playing all 32 games in his first two Baltimore years, though, Rolle missed 16 games between the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Even so, this move -- combined with the earlier release of Rolle -- will save the Ravens important cap space and put some nice depth in the defensive backfield.

I'm not sure if this is good news for Anquan Boldin, the Cardinals wide receiver who's been clamoring for a contract extension for almost a year now, but his agent Drew Rosenhaus wants to make it clear that he and Boldin are on good terms with the organization even though previous comments from the wide receiver suggested otherwise.

As proof, Rosenhaus points to the two-year, $10 million deal he negotiated for another of his clients, cornerback Bryant McFadden, the Cardinals' newest member.

By tomorrow afternoon, the Ravens will either have their replacement for Jason Brown or the Vikings will have brought back the elder statesman of their offensive line. Matt Birk says that his first jump into free agency won't take long, as he'll make a decision by Thursday on whether to sign with the Ravens or return to Minnesota.

The Ravens need Birk more than the Vikings do. Minnesota has been planning for Birk's potential loss, as they are grooming John Sullivan to replace Birk, although there is little doubt that Birk, a six-time Pro Bowler, will be a better center in 2009 than Sullivan.

The Denver Broncos told cornerback Domonique Foxworth that they were going to trade him yesterday, and today the trade has been made.

CBS 4 in Denver reports (via PFT) that he Broncos will receive a seventh round draft pick for Foxworth, which can turn into a sixth-round pick if he signs a contract extension with the Falcons before the 2009 NFL draft. That's not a great return for a guy who was a solid player and a 2005 third-round pick, but considering that he wasn't slated to start this year and probably wouldn't have been re-signed after the year, it's not a bad trade for the Broncos.

For the Falcons, Foxworth will have a good chance of earning a spot in the starting lineup, once he's learned the defense. Their depth chart currently lists Chris Houston and Brent Grimes as the starters at cornerback, and Foxworth represents an upgrade. Not a bad use of a late-round pick for Atlanta.

When the Denver Broncos finalized their 53-man roster Saturday, cornerback Dominique Foxworth was on it. But he won't be when the season starts.

The Broncos have told Foxworth they're working on trading him, and that he'll be gone just as soon as they find a team willing to give up whatever they think is fair compensation. And Foxworth says he's just fine with that:

"They didn't have to give me a warning," Foxworth said. "They are being classy about it. I'm not upset about it at all."

Foxworth is being classy about it, too. He's a solid player who could start on some teams, but not on the Broncos as long as they have Champ Bailey and Dre Bly. The early speculation is that the Patriots, Redskins, Saints, Rams and Browns are all potential suitors for his services. He won't have long to learn a new defense, but he could be playing in another uniform in just a few days.

Hearing the news that Saints' corner Mike McKenzie -- the fourth-ranked defensive back in success rate and seventh-ranked in yards per pass according to Football Outsiders -- tore his ACL last Sunday wasn't quite the Christmas gift I was hoping for.

It's bad enough that there was such a drop in talent from McKenzie's side of the field to Jason David's (the worst success rate and yards per pass in the league), what's more discouraging downright petrifying is that the timing of the injury means that, as of now, David is the best healthy corner on the Saints' 2008 roster. It was clear enough that the team already needed to improve at corner, and there will be a few quite good ones on the market. But instead of signing one, they'll probably now have to sign two and draft one on the first day.

As players are franchised and resigned, things will obviously change. But as of now the big three are Asante Samuel, Marcus Trufant, and Nnamdi Asomugha. There are a number of mid-price upgrades to be found, too, in Drayton Florence, Dominique Foxworth, Randall Gay, and Eric Green.

With $31.69 million available under the salary cap, the Saints have plenty of money to address the position, even after giving extensions to Marques Colston and Will Smith. There are other positions on defense that need fixing too -- defensive tackle and middle linebacker chief among them -- but those are positions you address in the draft. The Saints need to win before the nucleus of this offense dissipates; they do not have the time to wait for young cornerbacks to develop. And I don't have the time (or patience, or inner strength to not call Dr. Kevorkian) to watch another secondary like the one I had to endure this year.