Arizona Cardinals extend low tender to Tony Jefferson
By Erich Becker
Arizona Cardinals tender Tony Jefferson at the lowest possible level going into free agency.
The Arizona Cardinals have extended a low tender offer to safety Tony Jefferson, tagging him with the lowest amount possible of $1.67m for a one year contract. Because of the low tender, there is no compensation tied to Jefferson. Since he is a restricted free agent the team can match any offer that the safety receives, or, if they choose to pass, the team will gain nothing.
The team could have tendered Jefferson with a higher tender, paying him $2.55m for a year, according to Kent Somers at AZCentral Sports, which would of had a second round pick attached to it, meaning if another team signed Jefferson and the Cardinals chose not to match, the team he signed with would give up a second round pick to Arizona. The highest tender would be $3.64m with a first round pick attached to it.
Jefferson is a great player, one of the under-appreciated safeties on the team who can make big plays when he has to. In the Cardinals win over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football, Jefferson seal the game away with an interception of Joe Flacco on the last play of the game. His smarts make him a valuable piece of the defensive backfield that is in upheaval this offseason.
Safety Rashad Johnson and cornerback Jerraud Powers are both unrestricted free agents, and Tyrann Mathieu is coming off a terrible injury, but is making progress to get back on the field for the start of the season. Only Patrick Peterson is signed, sealed and delivered for the start of the 2016 (although Mathieu does have one year left on his rookie contract).
Possibly unrelated, but Jefferson’s tweek from yesterday was indecisive at best:
If Steve Keim is hamstrung by the salary situation, or if he has other plans in a not-tampering-kind-of-way, we’ll know more next week when the league year resets and teams can start to talk to free agents before the flurry of signings begin.