Cardinals Bring Back Free Agent WR

Dortch was an exclusive rights restricted free agent heading into this offseason.

A good explanation of what an exclusive rights free agent is via Pro Football Network:

"An exclusive rights free agent is a player with two or fewer accrued seasons and an expired contract. This contrasts a restricted free agent (three accrued seasons) or an unrestricted free agent (four or more accrued seasons).

"To accrue a season, a player must have been on a team’s roster for six or more regular-season games during that year. However, the player does not need to be active for games to accrue a season. Players on injured reserve and the physically unable to perform list also get credit toward an accrued season."

Since Dortch was offered the tender by Arizona, he is not allowed to sign with another team. Dortch would have been able to explore free agency had the Cardinals not tendered him.

According to OverTheCap, Dortch's tender will cost the Cardinals $1.12 million.

Dortch has been one of the more under-utilized players in Arizona since his arrival, though he's produced numerous times when his number was called. Many fans believe he deserves more playing time after logging just 35% of offensive snaps for the Cardinals this past season.

Arizona still has over $50 million in projected cap space to spend with six picks in the first three rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft. 

Dortch joins Rondale Moore and Michael Wilson as the top wideouts on the roster with Marquise Brown hitting free agency.