Bob McManaman

azcentral sports

Three NFL teams – the Chicago Bears, New York Jets and a third unnamed franchise – showed Jermaine Gresham the money this spring. Big money. He turned them all down.

So instead of signing a four-year deal worth $23 million – including $12 million in guaranteed money – the veteran tight end returned to the Cardinals, happily settling for a one-year contract worth $3.5 million with just $1 million in guaranteed pay.

Why?

“Overall happiness and a chance to win,” Gresham said during the Cardinals’ mandatory minicamp, which wrapped up early on Wednesday.

Money, apparently, isn’t everything. Not that people close to Gresham didn’t try to get him to change his mind.

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“Yeah, my agent tried talking me out of it,” he said. “But I think he felt that my happiness is more important. He saw my vision and he siding with me all the way to the end.”

The way Gresham sees it, he’s banking on himself and the Cardinals to have a monster year this season. The rewards will follow if that happens.

“Exactly,” he said. “I feel like I didn’t necessarily put my best foot forward last year and, hopefully, I’ll be able to significantly improve upon that and, hopefully, help make things even better than it was last year.

Quarterback Carson Palmer can see a different Gresham in offseason drills. For starters, the tight end is finally healthy, having joined the team last year not long after undergoing back surgery.

“He’s totally different,” Palmer said. “He came in off of a surgery last year and I don’t know if he was even part of the game plans until a month into the season. So having him right off the bat and just him being comfortable, us being comfortable with him, it’s a big advantage we have.”

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, noting running back Chris Johnson also spurned better offers to re-sign with Arizona, is thankful both players feel so strongly about the franchise.

“It speaks volumes I think for the locker room and guys he played with,” Arians said, “that he and Chris would turn down that amount of money to stay on this team because they know how close it is. When you get to a point in time in your career, winning means a lot. They know this is a very, very close team and very close to being very good, so I think it meant a lot to them in their decisions.

“It meant a lot to me. I’m very thankful.”

Talent overload

You don’t often hear a coach complaining that he’s got too much talent on his team, but that’s basically what Arians said Wednesday moments after dismissing his veterans for the rest of summer until they report to training camp on July 28.

“There’s so much competition on this football team right now; that’s what I just talked to them about,” he said. “We have more than 53. We’ve got probably 65 that I’m very comfortable with. And it’s going to be that you can’t have a bad day, especially in certain position groups.

“You just can’t have a bad day. You’ll fall too far behind.”

Arians referenced the tight end group, featuring Gresham, Darren Fells, Troy Niklas and Ifeanyi Momah.

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“I’ve never been around a tight end room that is as talented as this one,” he said. “We had Heath Miller in Pittsburgh, but we didn’t have four guys like we have.”

Then there are the running backs and the defensive backs - and don’t forget about the rebuilt defensive line.

“It’s going to be very competitive,” said nose tackle Corey Peters, who missed all of last season after tearing his left Achilles' tendon. “I think we’ve got about 10 guys who either played significant minutes in the league or got significant snaps.

“I think the versatility is definitely something that’s going to be a strength for us. We’ve got a lot of different guys – guys with a lot of experience, some young, explosive guys as well, some guys that are going to be great role players for us. I’m sure the competition in camp is going to be quite intense.”

Badger’s contract

Safety Tyrann Mathieu was asked Wednesday if he has a deadline in mind when it comes to signing a contract extension with the Cardinals. At first, he said he had no comment. Then he offered reporters this:

“It’ll happen. It’ll happen. It’s not something I’m going to miss any sleep about. This is just moments in my life I just try to enjoy. I don’t try to get too high or too low. But if something was to happen, I’m sure it will happen.”

The Cardinals and Mathieu’s representatives have been talking about a multiyear deal that could make Mathieu the highest-paid safety in the NFL.

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Injury update

Right guard Evan Mathis didn’t participate in drills on Tuesday or Wednesday because he had small bone fragments removed from his ankle recently. He should be fine by training camp, however.

Outside linebacker Zack Wagenmann, meanwhile, has suffered yet another setback with his right foot. The undrafted free-agent out of Montana said he re-injured it toward the end of practice on Tuesday and the diagnosis isn’t good.

“I was just coming around the edge, turning the corner, and felt some pain in the foot,” he said. “I’ll sit down with the doctors and try to get a game plan and get an idea of what we’re dealing with again. It’s a bummer. It’s not something I wanted going into the summer.”

Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Monday at 5:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Radio 1060-AM with Roc and Manuch and every Wednesday night between 7-9 on Fox Sports 910-AM on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.