Arizona Cardinals Sign Markus Golden and Rodney Gunter to Rookie Contracts

The Arizona Cardinals officially added two of their rookies to the team. Markus Golden and Rodney Gunter both signed their rookie deals on Wednesday.

After signing fifth round picks Shaq Riddick and J.J. Nelson, the  Arizona Cardinals have now signed four rookies to their first NFL contract. Second round pick Markus Golden and fourth round pick Rodney Gunter both signed their rookie deals today.

Markus Golden, a 6’3″, 260-pound defensive end from Missouri, was the 58th pick for Arizona in the 2015 draft. His resume includes being an All-SEC second team selection in his final season. He was also named the MVP of the Florida Citrus Bowl.  In three years for the Missouri Tigers, he tallied 16.5 sacks and 143 total tackles.

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Rodney Gunter, a 6’5″defensive end from Delaware State, was protected to be a seventh round pick or go undrafted. Arizona reached for him with the 166th pick. Gunter led his small school i sacks in all three of his seasons there. He notched seven sacks last season.

This leaves three unsigned draftees for Arizona, including first round pick D.J. Humphries. Because rookie pay scales are slated. these contract talks are usually over minor aspects and tend not to take long to handle. The Cardinals could have all their rookies signed as early as tomorrow. The Cardinals’ three unsigned picks are still fully participating in team activities.

These signings are far less notable news than they once were. As Darren Urban of the Cardinals’ website noted, signings used to take the Cards until early July. Now, teams like the Bears try to have their picks signed within a day or two after the draft.

As expected, both players had very strong feelings upon signing NFL contracts. Gunter, as reported by the Cardinals’ team website, said “I’m so emotional right now.” Both of these players hit an important culminating event in their lives. Now, The Cards want them to get on the filed and earn the money on their deals.