FanHouse KarlosDansby

The difficult contract negotiations between disgruntled receiver Anquan Boldin and the Arizona Cardinals took an interesting turn Tuesday with the news that Boldin has filed paperwork with the players' union to fire agent Drew Rosenhaus and seek new representation.

It's unclear who Boldin's new agent would be as he seeks a restructured contract or a trade from Arizona. The rules require him to wait at least five days after firing his agent to secure a new one. It's also unclear what this means in terms of where Boldin will play in 2009. Heck, it's not even really clear that he's through with Rosenhaus for good. At least not if you believe Rosenhaus's prolific and popular Twitter page.

Anquan Boldin and Darnell Dockett are both a little upset with their current contract situation. Dockett's situation is a little less exposed because of the constant mention of Boldin's deal, but they're both looking for something new.

And they both have injured hamstrings. Which may or may not be true, but it wouldn't appear that coach Ken Whisenhunt is buying into the injury excuse.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

After a Cinderella run to the Super Bowl -- and nearly winning the thing -- the Cardinals will look to continue building momentum as a franchise. They have a gaping hole in the backfield, because there is no true every-down back on the team anymore. Also, Anquan Boldin's situation really needs to be resolved, and the team could struggle to replace dearly departed offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

Apparently, it has been a rough month for NFL agent Kirk Wood.

The Arizona Republic reported that Cardinal linebacker Karlos Dansby fired Wood last weekend. Dansby has been trying to get a long term deal for a while, but has been franchised two years in a row.

And then on Wednesday, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reported in his blog that Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans has fired Wood too. Ryans and CB Dunta Robinson are sitting out voluntary workouts, hoping to get the Texans to negotiate again. Ryans is under contract but was hoping to renegotiate to receive a longer term deal with the team.

Logic dictated that, after the Cardinals hit Karlos Dansby with the franchise tag, Arizona had some sort of unspoken agreement to sign Kurt Warner quickly after he became a free agent.

Additionally, it's widely known that Warner told the team he wanted to stay with the Cardinals after this year. But that didn't stop the Arizona from, presumably, leveraging Warner's wishes into him taking less money. One problem: Warner hasn't caved. And now Adam Schefter is reporting that there won't be anything done by midnight either, making the quarterback an unrestricted free agent.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

After astonishing everyone and heading to the Super Bowl last season, the Arizona Cardinals now face truly raised expectations for the first time in memory. We all remember the magical postseason run, when Larry Fitzgerald established himself as the NFL's premier wideout (even if Andre Johnson wants to argue), Kurt Warner polished his legacy, and the defense showed its capability -- one we had not seen much in the regular season.

The Arizona Cardinals had a decision to make with their franchise player designation. Quarterback Kurt Warner, who led the team to their first-ever Super Bowl berth, is set to become a free agent on Feb. 27. So is star linebacker Karlos Dansby.

Warner came out rather quickly and ruined his chances of making a killing on the open market said that he would either stay in Arizona or retire. The Cardinals appear ready to take him at his word.

Pro Football Talk has gotten its hands on some preliminary cap room numbers. What's clear is that, like last year, there is more money available to be spent then there are players to spend it on.

Even before teams start getting rid of dead weight and overpaid veterans, only four teams are over the cap--the Jets, Colts, Saints and Redskins (Washington wouldn't know how to start an offseason if it wasn't over the cap). Now these numbers may change slightly once unlikely to be earned incentives that were reached are added and likely to be earned incentives that weren't are credited, but the numbers will not change much.

The full numbers and cap room are after the jump.

The Arizona Cardinals are coming off the most successful season in franchise history. This offseason, they'll face a myriad of personnel decisions which could go far in determining it we witnessed a beginning or an outlier. In addition to the high profile cases of Kurt Warner, Anquan Boldin, and Edgerrin James, the Cardinals also have several other key issues to resolve.

Karlos Dansby and Antonio Smith are free agents. The contracts Adrian Wilson and Darnell Dockett should be addressed, and they need to hire three significant coaching holes -- offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach.

FanHouse's resident referee will chime in quasi-weekly with thoughts on major topics relating to officiating. We call it The Zebra Report. Matt Snyder is a high school official with eight years experience. While this is like a third-year resident critiquing the work of a world-renowned surgeon, it's still better than someone who has never worn the stripes.

First of all, congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was one hell of a Super Bowl with a dramatic ending. The first thing I want to say about the officiating is that I believe it was a very well officiated game. We'll delve right into the alleged controversial calls and sort things out.