"I don't think our defensive plan's going to change that much," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "I just think there are going to be a few more elements of the 3-4 involved with it. But the same type of basic fundamental defensive philosophy we've had is going to continue. The thing we don't want to do is have a lot of change in terminology or anything that's going to disrupt that, so hopefully we can improve in a number of areas that hurt us late in the season last year."

--For the first time, Whisenhunt explained his reasoning for firing defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast. He thought the defense was lacking in a few areas, such as stopping teams in the red zone, where the Cardinals ranked 28th.

"Those kinds of things that were critical to us, it was an improvement we needed to make," Whisenhunt said. "When you hold your players accountable, you have to (hold) everybody accountable. In looking at the process over two years, I just felt like that was an area we needed to improve."

--The Cardinals have been conservative in free agency the past few years, spreading their money around to middle of the road free agents instead of spending heavily on just one or two guys. Whisenhunt wouldn't say if the club would follow that same philosophy this year. "We've had great success with Bryan Robinson and Clark Haggans and some of those guys we brought in. You'd like to do that every year but there's not guarantee you can do that. I think we're certainly going to try but it's not going to preclude us from trying to address any needs we might have in free agency early, you know if we go after a player we feel like can really help our football team."

--The club is in no hurry to release running back Edgerrin James. James, who has one year left on his deal, is sure to be gone but the Cardinals want to be certain they are covered at the position before parting with James.

"There was no commitment with respect to a timeframe or even that we would let him go," said general manager Rod Graves. "We just said we would talk about it after the season. We will weigh any decision with respect to him or any other player as it affects our roster and the strength of our roster."

QUOTE TO NOTE: "Anquan is very important. He has obviously had a huge impact on our success. We still continue to treat him as a core player. I wish we were in a position to address everyone's contract desires when they want them, but that doesn't happen in the real world." -- General Manager Rod Graves updating the team's stance on extending the contract of Anquan Boldin.