West Virginia daily

Within minutes after the draft ended Sunday, Adam Bergen of Lehigh got over the shock of being ignored by agreeing to terms with the Cardinals. Team spokesman Mark Dalton wouldn't comment on an incomplete transaction, but Bergen said he was not in negotiations with any other teams and planned to attend Arizona's post-draft minicamp on Friday.

"I'll sign it when they get us out there," he said.

Cardinals coach Dennis Green told reporters in his draft recap that taking a tight end was never a priority even though Jones, who had 144 catches the last three years, was not re-signed.

"We'll start in free agency," Green said. "That's where we got Eric Edwards last year, who played a lot of football for us and right now is pegged as a starter. That's where Aaron Golliday was two years ago, when he made the practice squad, and so I just think we feel pretty good about it. We're getting excellent reviews from Bobby Blizzard over in the European league."

Any of them would be hard-pressed to match Bergen's credentials as a pass-catching tight end, an essential part of any offense run by two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner.

Bergen, a two-time Division I-AA All-American, had a career-high 70 catches for 840 yards and six touchdowns in 2003. He pulled in 54 balls for 634 yards and eight scores last year, enough to get invited to the East-West Shrine game, spark NFL interest and generate dreams of moving up to the game's highest level.

Instead, he spent two days watching the draft through to the end. Nine tight ends were picked, but Bergen wasn't among them.

"It was a long two days, but it worked out in the end," Bergen said. "We were hoping that the Cardinals picked me up, either through the draft or free agency."

The experience was eerily similar to the one he had four years earlier, when the former high-school quarterback at Seaford, N.Y., finished his prep career without getting any offers to play big-time football. But it never deprived Bergen of his self-confidence.

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