A handful of quick hits here on a Wednesday morning:
-- Undrafted rookie Michael Ray Garvin was a defensive back at Florida State, but he is coming in here as a kick returner and will be tried as a wide receiver for his "regular" position. But make no mistake – he'll have to shine as a return man to make the roster.
-- There has been so much said about the cap space saved by the trio of cuts yesterday. I tried to explain it the best I could how I came up with my rough number of $6 million in cap savings (which, along with the approximately $1.2 of space the team already had, pushes them to around $7 million of space or so). I was in the ballpark; my friend Kent Somers figured the number at about $5.5 million. The Cards were given about $3.9 million in rookie pool allotment (the maximum cap space that can be given in 2009 to the eight draft picks). Until the regular season starts, teams only use the top 51 cap numbers to figure cap space, so that doesn't mean the Cards need $3.9 million of cap space for the draftees.
The rookie pool allotment, by the way, is cap space within the cap space; in other words, not extra cap room but a number that is contained in the original $127M-per-team cap allowance.
UPDATE: Kent talked to Rod Hood, who explained he had hit a $2M incentive for his salary. That means Hood's 2009 salary would have been $5M and not $3M, and it adds another $2M in cap space to what the Cards cleared. Hood may have been too pricey as a backup at $3M; he was definitely too pricey at $5M. UPDATE II: Kent has updated again the above link saying the Cards said Hood didn't hit his incentive. Hood was cut, regardless. This only has to do with cap space now. I'll try and track down some info.
-- There has been a lot of speculation over what veterans were in trouble in terms of being released after the draft (at least, before Tuesday's bombshell). One guy taking some heat is safety Aaron Francisco. You can argue the merits of Francisco, but know this: Francisco looked like he was in the wrong spot of a couple of plays late in the Super Bowl but I was told it was other defensive breakdowns and not Francisco's errors. Something to keep in mind.
-- Beanie Wells will have his introductory presser tomorrow afternoon sometime (coverage on azcardinals.com!) and the players will arrive for minicamp this weekend. It's hard to believe they're headed back to the field. Fan Fest is Saturday for the morning practice with an autograph session beforehand (gates open at 9 a.m. in Tempe and you can go here for all the details).
