Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Cardinals reach contract extension with starting center

Originally posted on Burn City Sports | By Brendan Mau | Last updated Aug 21, 2024 12:43 PM ET

Arizona Cardinals starting center Hjalte Froholdt signed a two-year contract extension with the team Wednesday to keep him in Arizona through 2026.

We have signed C Hjalte Froholdt to a 2-year contract extension.

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) August 21, 2024

One day after his 28th birthday, Froholdt signed the extension worth $12 million with $8 million guaranteed, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport.

It’s a 2-year extension worth $12M with $8M guaranteed, sources say. A well-earned payday. https://t.co/dIfyj0wxlu

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 21, 2024

Froholdt was one of four players to start all 17 games last season with the Cardinals after signing a two-year deal with the team in March 2023, playing 1,123 offensive snaps. He spent the previous four seasons with the New England Patriots (2019-20) and Cleveland Browns (2021-22) after being selected 118th overall by New England in the 2019 NFL Draft.

“Every time you start thinking you’re in a good spot, or safe or anything, I think you start getting complacent,” Froholdt said in training camp in July. “I still try not to think it’s my spot. I’ve been traveling around the league for quite a while, and I’m happy to have found a place I can call home right now and I enjoy it.

Froholdt had only ever started six games before coming to the Cardinals last season, but was immediately entrusted by coach Jonathan Gannon in both of their first seasons with the Cardinals.

“Personal character, football character, the type of teammate that he is, the work that he puts into being a pro and a good player,” Gannon said of why he liked Froholdt early on.

Gannon added that they had some “inside intel” on Froholdt from offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and some of his staff, as Petzing was the quarterbacks coach in Cleveland from 2020-22.

“They all jumped on the table and said, ‘This guy is going to do that. All he needs to do is play,’ and that’s what Hjalte has done,” Gannon said.

The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Froholdt is a native of Svendborg, Denmark and began playing football in the United States during his sophomore year of high school as a foreign exchange student in Warren, Ohio. In 2019, he became the first Danish player ever invited to the NFL Combine after spending four seasons at Arkansas.

Now, Froholdt gets rewarded after his big 2023 season to continue to work with Kyler Murray, Gannon and Petzing for years to come.