"I have reached out to Kevin. We traded messages, and one of the things that I told him I look forward to doing is talking with him sometime this week," Graves told Arizona Sports 620's Doug and Wolf Thursday. "He knows we've been busy, he's been traveling and so forth, but I look forward to talking to him soon."

Kolb was given a $7 million roster bonus in March, which ended the Cardinals chase for Manning. The confidence in Kolb was tested when he was injured for most of the 2011 season and his numbers fell short of expectations.

He completed 57.7 percent of his passes and threw eight interceptions and nine touchdowns.

Graves said Kolb wants those problems out of his mind and focus on the goals the team had for him the past year.

"I will say this is that first of all, Kevin is a professional," Graves said. "He understands the game, and he's just looking forward to moving forward and meeting a lot of the expectations that he not only had for himself, but what this organization had for him."

The Cardinals have made it clear they're sticking with the 27-year-old quarterback, and they're excited to see how he'll use the offseason as motivation.

"We're excited about what our football team is going to be able to do around him and John Skelton this year," Graves said. "We'll see how the whole position plays out, but Kevin is a competitor."