Cardinals GM Steve Keim: ‘We will exhaust every resource’ at the QB position
Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwill told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug & Wolf earlier this week that the front office would probably sit down during the offseason and address quarterback Kevin Kolb’s current contract.
Kolb, who is set to earn $11 million ($9 million in salary and $2 in roster bonuses) in 2013, missed the final 10 games of Arizona’s 5-11 season after suffering a serious ribs/sternum injury in a Week 6 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
And if there’s been a consistent theme during Kolb’s two-year tenure in the Valley, it’s been his inability to stay healthy.
Since signing a five-year contract with Arizona in July 2011, Kolb has managed to play just 15 games in a Cardinals uniform.
So if the veteran quarterback and management don’t see eye-to-eye on a restructured deal, the question remains: What is the team’s Plan B behind center?
“The one thing I made clear is that we will exhaust every resource that we have,” general manager Steve Keim told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug & Wolf Friday. “We will look at every player in the draft, rounds one through seven. We’ll do college free agency.
“With our pro player personnel department, we have looked at every unrestricted free agent. And we’ve even taken it a step further and looked at every backup in the league, along with all of the starters.”
While the team has been linked to names via trade (Alex Smith), free agency (Drew Stanton) and the draft (Geno Smith, Matt Barkley and Mike Glennon), vice president of player personnel Jason Licht, who also joined Doug & Wolf, said exploring any of those avenues, especially through a trade, is not an exact science.
“First of all, you want to put a value on a player,” said Licht. “Do you think this guy is going to make us better? Do you think he’s going to be an elite quarterback? You have to put them in different categories.
“After that, you don’t want to go to another team and say, ‘By the way, we would like to offer you this.’ You kind of have to smoke them out a little bit and see what they think the value of the player is. It’s not an easy process. You know in the back of your mind what you’d be willing to give.”
The free agency process can also be a crapshoot for a team trying to add talent at the quarterback position. Licht made sure to note that when evaluating all potential assets, it’s important to look at the entire body of work and not just one breakout season.
“In this business you have to go with your gut and my gut tells me stripes usually don’t change,” said Licht. “You want to play the percentages, and you don’t want to bring the wrong kind of players to this team.
“It’s a tough call, because you want to look at the whole body of work, not just his latest season.”
As Keim added, “They can tease you from time-to-time, but usually they revert back to who they really are.”
