Cardinals give up huge bounty to acquire Kolb

[D'BOYZ]

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 28, 2011, 3:02 PM EDT

After a while, all of the “Kevin Kolb trade is close” reports started to remind us of the reports that said the “labor deal is close.”
Thankfully, this deal didn’t take as long to close.
Adam Caplan of FOXSports.com reports Kolb is headed to Arizona in exchange for a second-round pick and 2009 Pro Bowl cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.
That’s a ton to give up for an unproven quarterback, but the Cardinals were only getting started betting their future on Kolb. Caplan reports Kolb will sign a five-year, $63 million contract with $20 million guaranteed.
(Kolb can head to Arizona now, but league rules indicate he can’t start practicing until the league year starts on August 4.)
The guaranteed money is less than Kolb was reportedly asking for, but still more than a quarterback with seven uneven career starts. Houston made a similar deal for Matt Schaub which worked out, although they didn’t give up a solid young starting cornerback in that deal.
What a gamble. The move will define the rest of the Ken Whisenhunt/Rod Graves era in Arizona.
They were absolutely desperate for a quarterback solution in the desert, and they acted like it.