NFC West Notes: Cardinals, Boston, Rams

The Cardinals‘ one-year deal with free agent safety Tre Boston is worth just $1.5M, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). However, Boston can earn up to $3MM if he hits certain requirements and incentives.

These last five months probably felt like five years for Boston as he lingered on the open market. Like other veteran safeties, he found that interested teams were only willing to offer him deals at or near the minimum salary as they preferred younger and cheaper options in the draft.

The good news for Boston is that he may be able to reestablish his value with a strong year in Arizona. The Cardinals tend to employ sets with three safeties on the field, so he’ll have a chance to shine as he mans center field.

Here’s more from the NFC West:

  • Are the Rams concerned about giving Aaron Donald big money? Mike Florio of PFT wonders aloud if the Rams are wary of paying Donald only to watch him take his foot off of the gas, like other defensive tackles have done before him. Most notably, former standout Albert Haynesworth tanked after signing a $100MM deal with the Redskins.
  • Todd Gurley‘s new $57.5MM extension with the Rams is a rarity in the NFL, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap writes. That’s because Gurley’s new contract represents a 74% uptick over the second highest paid running back in the NFL and a 110% increase over the fifth highest paid RB. The last player to sign a deal like this was Ndamukong Suh and that was as an unrestricted free agent and his increases were closer to 50% and 75%, respectively. Fitzgerald also believes that the Rams’ ill-fated extension with Tavon Austin hurt their leverage with Gurley.
  • On Thursday, the Seahawks formally placed retired safety Kam Chancellor on the PUP list and released 2017 second-round pick Malik McDowell.
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