Voice of The Cardinals

photo courtesy of azcardinals.comThe Arizona Cardinals have come to terms with 5th round pick, RB Tim Hightower. Hightower’s 3 year deal is the first contract signed by any of the Cardinals 2008 draft picks. As the offseason begins to progress I expect the Cardinals to knock down a few more contracts from the 2008 draft class.

Signing players early is never a bad sign. When was the last time you heard someone say, “to bad that guy signed his contract so early, it really ruined his year.” It just doesn’t seem to happen that way. So hopefully we’ll start seeing more young guys sign early on like Hightower so they don’t have to make up the learning curve. It’s obviously very important to show up as early and often to offseason training when you’ve never played professional football before.

I don’t know how good Tim Hightower is going to be. At first I thought he might make a very minor impact for the Cardinals. But the more I see Tim play the more I think he could really contribute. Hightower’s powerful short burst and excellent hands could make him a very nice third down back this next season. On top of all that, Tim has showed that he could be a very effective special teams guy, and anyone that knows the Cardinals realizes the importance of having solid special teams players.

I don’t think Hightower will make an immediate impact in the first few games of the season, but as time goes on and he grows I think he could become a very important piece to the Cardinals puzzle.