Quarterback visited 49ers on Monday
PHOENIX
Kurt Warner is staying with the Arizona Cardinals, agreeing to a two-year, $23 million contract.
The agent for the 37-year-old quarterback said Wednesday the deal includes a $15 million signing bonus.
“We finally got it done,” agent Mark Bartelstein told The Associated Press. “We’re excited about that. I think it’s good for everybody.”
Warner made a highly publicized visit to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday but had made it clear he wanted to remain in Arizona, where he was the catalyst of the Cardinals’ improbable run to the Super Bowl. The Cardinals have an offense tailored to Warner’s skills with two of the game’s top wide receivers in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.
The deal came after Warner lowered his demands Tuesday. Initially, he had sought to be among the top five paid quarterbacks in the NFL, about $14.5 million a year. But on Tuesday, he told Bartelstein to offer Arizona a two-year, $23 million deal. The Cardinals initially had offered two years and $20 million.
Warner has been with the Cardinals for four seasons but had to win the starting job from Matt Leinart in training camp a year ago. He went on to have a Pro Bowl season that rivaled his league MVP days with the St. Louis Rams.
He started all 20 games for Arizona last season. In 16 regular-season games, Warner completed 67 percent of his throws for 4,583 yards and 30 touchdowns, with 14 interceptions.
In four playoff games, he was even better, completing 68 percent of his passes for 1,147 yards and 11 touchdowns, with three interceptions.
But for one extremely costly interception, he was brilliant in Arizona’s 27-23 loss to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl, completing 31 of 43 passes for 377 yards and three touchdowns.
Warner’s return to the top was one of the best stories of last season, another chapter to his storybook career. His well-known tale includes stocking shelves in a supermarket, then working his way through the Arena Football League and NFL Europe to the Rams, where he was thrust into the starting job after an injury to Trent Green.
Warner led the Rams to two Super Bowls, winning one of them, in three years but lost his starting job Marc Bulger and left as a free agent for the New York Giants, where he was displaced by rookie Eli Manning. Then it was off to Arizona, where Warner was an off-and-on starter before taking over last year in Ken Whisenhunt’s second season as coach.
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Story by Bob Baum, AP Sports Writer
