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After waiting patiently for the NFL's labor dispute to play out and get resolved, teams and players are now busy with all of the wheeling and dealing that goes along with trying to sign free agents. One of the biggest coups in the early going belongs to the Arizona Cardinals. They managed to greatly improve their offense by getting running back Edgerrin James, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts, to agree to a 4-year contract worth a reported $30 million.

James will be embarking on his 8th season in the NFL next year. He broke into the league as a first-round draft pick (4th overall) in 1999. Since that time, he has consistently ranked among the top running backs in the league. He rushed for 1,506 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, bringing his career totals to 9,226 and 64, respectively. He has averaged over 100 yards per game in three different seasons, and has a career yards-per-game average of 96.1, which, to say the least, is excellent.

According to several of the published reports that hit the Internet the day after James signed, there were two big reasons that the multi-time Pro Bowler decided to give the Cardinals a chance. First of all, he likes the potential he sees with the team. Arizona features former two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner at quarterback and has two of the best wide receivers in the league in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.

The Cardinals led the NFL in passing last season by averaging 277.3 yards per game through the air. But that was more out of necessity than anything else. It seemed that if they didn't throw the ball, their offense would never move at all. That's because their running game, which previously featured veteran Marcel Shipp and rookie J.J. Arrington, was dead last in the league with a minuscule average of 71.1 yards per game. So even though the Cardinals were primarily a passing team last season, you can expect a running back like James to get a significant amount of carries in each game next year.

A second reason that James opted to sign with Arizona is the fact that a sizable amount of the total dollar value of his contract is actually guaranteed money. Unlike some other professional sports, football contracts aren't guaranteed from year to year. So just because a player signs a contract for "x" amount of dollars, that doesn't mean he'll receive all that money. Teams and players work around this by loading up on signing bonuses and first-year salary. For example, James' signing bonus with Arizona is reportedly worth more than $11 million.

With James in the backfield next season, the Cardinals will finally have the two-dimensional offense that has been sorely lacking the last couple of seasons. James has 49-career 100-yard rushing games so far, and he's sure to add to that total during his tenure in Arizona. With James presenting a real ground threat, opposing defenses will have to respect his ability and keep guys up on the line of scrimmage. This will open up the rest of the field for Warner, Boldin, and Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had 10 receiving touchdowns last season while Boldin had 7, and you just know that they have an excellent chance of improving on those numbers now that the Cardinals have a running game.

Of course, the signing of a big-time free agent brings huge expectations. The Cardinals finished with a record of 5-11 last season, which left them in third place in the very weak NFC West division. With the addition of James to the lineup, I predict that the Cardinals will get at least 3 more wins and finish with a record of 8-8. This certainly won't be enough to unseat the Seattle Seahawks, who are the defending conference champs (especially since the Seahawks re-signed reigning NFL MVP Shaun Alexander to a multi-year deal). But the extra wins should be enough to allow the Cardinals to move up a spot and finish ahead of both the St. Louis Rams and the San Francisco 49ers. Depending on how the rest of the conference plays out, an 8-8 record might even be enough to make it to the postseason with a Wild Card berth.