Cardinals preseason Game 1 takeaways

Following the Arizona Cardinals' preseason opener, an 18-17 last-second, come-from-behind win, Jess and Seth talk about who and what stood out in the game, why the win was important (despite being only a preseason win) and what we can learn and take away from playing time.

Episode Transcript

(00:13):
This is the Rise Up Sea Redpodcast, all about the Arizona Cardinals and
the NFL, featuring insider and outsiderperspectives. Enjoy the best hour of Cardinals
talk on the web. Now Hereare your hosts, Jess Root and Seth
Cox. Hellosona Cardinals fans, andwelcome to the latest edition of the Rise

(00:34):
Up Sea Red Podcast. I'm yourhost Jess Root from cardswire dot com,
the USA Today NFL wire site,with my host co host Seth Cox from
Revenge of the Birds dot com,esp nations Arizona Cardinals site, and one
of the hosts of the original DraftBreakdown podcast. We are here at episode
four hundred and fifty one, comingoff of the Cardinals preseason victory on Friday

(00:54):
night. And you know, askind of gross as that game kind of
started, wow, it's that wasa little bit fun by the end,
wasn't it. Yeah, And Ihonestly the beginning was fun when the first
team defense was out there and lookedcompetent against the Broncos mainly first team offense,

(01:21):
and not all the starters were,you know, out there, but
a good chunk of them were.And when we saw we saw what this
defense could potentially look like. Andthen even the second unit did a really
nice job to you know, closeto the end of the of the second
quarter, and so it's just it'sfun to see that. Yeah, I

(01:42):
mean, the offense left you wantingearly in the game, and that's to
be expected as you as you unveila new offensive scheme without basically your three
best offensive weapons on the field andKyler Murray, James Connor and Hollywood Brown
all not playing. But we didsee some flashes at the same time,

(02:07):
which is really nice, right,Yeah, it was, and let's kind
of talk about that. Let's we'regonna talk about who and what stood out
in again against the Broncos. Willdelve into I mean, it was just
a preseason one, but how importantthat actually was in my we'll talk about
that. And then there's a there'sa kind of a bunch of little things.
Zach Ertz is off pup, where'sKyler Murray? At what we could

(02:31):
take away from the playing time,a couple of roster moves. But let's
get started with that. Who andwhat stood up for the verst of the
Broncos and now the Cardinals, youknow, they won the tossins, they
started on offense, and there wasnothing special about their drive except it was
nine plays twenty eight yards. Butthey picked up two third downs and so

(02:53):
basically they got just past midfield andthen punt of the ball on granted the
punt wind of the end zone,but you know, even if you don't
get a score. Just the thingthat we've seen from the Cardinals in in
the last couple of years, itwas sort of feast or famine, right,
So they were either they were eithergetting into scoring position or they'd end

(03:15):
up with a three and out.And I was, honestly, one of
my biggest observations is after the fouryears of the air Raid offensive scheme that
wasn't just true area, but thekind of the offensive principles that what we
saw, especially with the starting offensewere very traditional offensive concepts. It was

(03:38):
simple. Cult McCoy was efficient,they moved the ball a little bit,
They didn't make big plays. Butthis this is I think this is at
least initially and I got a glimpse. I think it gave us a little
bit of a glimpse of the preKyler offense until he gets back that this
will be an offense that survives.There it's not going to be any things,

(04:01):
but I think it will be.It will be adequate enough not to
that like the potential, like theceiling that we're going to see from the
offense is just not terrible, right, and and at least will be functional
and to be able to move ita ball a little bit. You might
not score a lot of points,but if the defense is grappy, maybe

(04:25):
they're not going to be terrible.Right, keep things close and see what
happens at the end of the game, right, And that's kind of what
we saw on the preseason, andand obviously you want to see more from
the offense, but we have toalso remember, you know, no matter
what or who I guess is theeasier way to say who the coaching is,

(04:46):
there's always ups and downs or there'salways slow starts, you know.
So you go back, you goback to twenty nineteen, and you know,
the first the first four games ofthe King's Very Era offensively weren't weren't
great. It wasn't really I mean, I know they scored that twenty seven
in the first game to tie withDetroit, but after that it was seventeen

(05:10):
twenty ten, you know, andthen they then they get to playing Cincinnati
and Atlanta and some teams that weren'tquite as good, and you know,
they put up twenty six thirty four, they put up you know, twenty
seven against the Giants and you seethat. And meanwhile, obviously the defense
was just kind of bad that year, and that was understandable and you kind
of saw it coming and whatever.But then they took that leap, not

(05:33):
you know, not a hugely,but it just was different in Ar two.
Now, all of a sudden,you're averaging twenty five points per game
early in the season, right anddefensively, and so it's not it's not
a surprise, or it shouldn't bea surprise, especially in the preseason.
Like we said, without three ofthe main cogs out there, that it's

(05:54):
going to be slow and if thedefense can put up and effort like that,
results are not going to be thatgood. Let's just be completely honest,
Like they're not going to look thatgood defensively, maybe against the Commander
Skins or whatever they are now,but you know, not against not against

(06:18):
good teams, not against you know, these teams in games two, in
three, and four. But ifthey're able to you know, and at
least give the offense a chance.That's what you want to see. And
so that's why it was. Ijust I thought it was a real positive

(06:39):
even before the ending. Yeah,it was. There were so many things
that now the defense was better thanadvertised early they made plays. There was
And that's the thing for me,I thought, I've always believed that with
the coaching scheme wise, that inthe type of player that they got that

(07:00):
is the season progressed that this thisdefense would be competitive. I don't I
don't want to to bet too muchon the defense, especially against the Broncos
team that had a terrific offense ayear ago. Well and and they're in
the same boat even though they haveRussell had Russell Wilson and most of their

(07:20):
offensive fire power, they were badyear And you and I were talking before
the show, is like what wasPeyton doing? What was Sean Payton doing
in that game? Well and andthey're still learning a new system too.
So I mean, I don't agreewith it, but I kind of I

(07:41):
don't. I shouldn't even say Iunderstood. I don't agree with it,
but you saw it, and andthat's the thing is like you look at
it from this perspective. You know, a guy like Russell Wilson, right,
he played, Sorry, I'm lookingfor the number here. I just

(08:01):
want to make sure I get itright. He played twenty snaps. Twenty
snaps the Cardinals starters on defense.Five. Yeah, that's that is a
baffling, baffling juxtaposition, and againgoes back to what we talked about,

(08:24):
right, like, we don't wantto overstate anything about this game. You
know, we don't want anybody tobe like, oh, you know,
the guys said it was an unbelievablegame, and you know, but there
was some impressive parts to it,and especially when you look at how things

(08:48):
went on defense, like like yousaid, like when when they were competent
on defense going into the second quarterbefore we saw really anything in terms of

(09:09):
of scoring from the Broncos, thatwas I mean, they overkill them the
turnovers, so they granted field goaldefense of its right, but there the
point was that after they had theturnover, the defense limited them to only

(09:30):
a field goal. That that's thoseare the type of those are critical things
in football, Like if you givethe ball away, you have to be
able to make plays to get theball back or or hold them to three
points and they ended up getting gettingaway without none. But they did that
a couple of times. Is thatthe defense made plays. You know,
we saw a couple of nice thingsof LJ. Collier had the had the

(09:52):
tip pass uh Vic Victor McCage laterin the game on into that screen that
boots so well because the running backhad lots of lots lots of open field
and McCage timed the leap and batteddown that past perfectly and it defended that

(10:13):
perfectly in that sense. But yeah, it was just it was surprised.
They were surprisingly again just the preseason, but with the narrative being all off
season of how bad the Cardinals aregoing to be, the fact that there
was competency on both sides of theball was hopeful and that's all you're looking

(10:35):
for in year one, especially whereyou're being sold that this is the worst
team in football by a lot ofpeople. I mean, goodness, I
cannot I can't remember the name rightnow. But they just dropped their you
know, prediction for the season,and they had the Cardinals that I think

(10:58):
two and fifteen, three and fourteenpicking first overall again. You know.
So that's the thing is like ifthey come out and they're competent and they're
they're in games until Murray gets back, and then with Murray, if they're
able to start producing a little betteroffensively, like that's a really exciting thing.

(11:22):
And you know, again, whenyou're talking about preseason, you look
for positives and and I thought therewere obviously the overarching positives of the win,
which is always nice, but moreimportantly, like you said, defensively,
they looked dare we say good andoffensively offensively, it wasn't the train

(11:50):
wreck we were expecting, right,And let's talk individuals on the offensive side
of the ball. Was there anyonethat stood out to you as as either
surprise? So now, for me, one of the players, and I
mentioned this in the solo show thatI did last week, one of the
players I had my own was yelleda Frold and guess what this That might

(12:11):
end up being a very underrated scoutingmove. You know, we we talked
about like after the hiring of MontyAustin Forts and kind of how they with
the Patriots, they were able tobuild offensive line for the most part with
Day two, Day three type prospects. Wasn't for drafted by the Patriots in

(12:35):
like the fourth round, I think, and and and while he did to
have some he had some rough patcheslast year when they go out again and
they don't they don't sign another veteranand he's had the job all off season.
And then to see some of theplays that he absolutely absolutely mauled that
whatever. One of one of theguys that follows me on Twitter referred to

(12:58):
as a choke slam Zach Allen.A big, big, strong human being
and very disruptive as we've seen inhis career with the Cardinals, but choke
slammed Zach Allen. We saw himon a screen pass, get out to
the second level and demolish a cornerback. That that addition that we were both

(13:20):
very hesitant about might actually be avery might be a winning move if if
that what we saw on Friday continues. Yeah, and that's I mean,
obviously you're not expecting him to be, you know, one of the four
best players on offense and in agame and you know, every game.

(13:43):
But if he's a guy that thatcan play well and not be the weak
link, that's I don't want tosay just as important, but it's one
of the more important developments that we'llsee of the off season, because that's
where one of the questions lies isWho's how is that interior gonna look because

(14:05):
it feels like it feels like rightnow we're pretty locked into DJ Humphries,
well Hernandez and Paris Johnson, andyou know, we had questions about fro
Holt, and then I think there'sstill questions on that left guard position.

(14:26):
I don't know because ever since likethe last week of out as it's been
Wilkinson there period. Yeah, buthe did not play well. He was
probably the worst starting offensive lineman inthe game. And you know what,
if we've seen from his career heis a capable lineman. Because it's not

(14:52):
bad like like fans are legitimately scaredabout Dennis Daley playing, but if Dennis
Daly is your six off defensive linemanand jumbo tight end, hey, I
think we'll feel good. But yeah, so froe Holt, I thought looked,
you know, excellent. You know, from there, it's just kind
of it was kind of pick yourpoison. You know. Obviously you had

(15:16):
the great throw from David Blow atthe end of the game. I thought,
you know, I thought Tyson Williamsran well. I thought Amari Demarcado
ran pretty well. I thought wesaw flashes from Michael Wilson in the game

(15:39):
of what he can do as aas both the receiver and a run blocker,
which is you know, probably gonnabe big in this offense, right,
you know, all of those thingsstood out offensively. But I just
want I just think that, likethe most important thing was fro Hold played

(16:00):
well, and honestly, Pat Elfinedidn't play too poorly right behind them,
Yeah, yeah, and then thatwasn't that wasn't too bad. I felt
that the Running Game had plays tobe made, but because they were because
it was Corey clemented company, especiallyearly in the game, that the plays

(16:22):
weren't being made. And I thinkthat Running Game would look better obviously with
Connor leading the way and then otherguys coming off the bench, rather than
having Corey Clement be the lead guy. I liked on the offensive side of
the ball, there was one particularto play because you know, everyone complained

(16:45):
about the Rondel Moore usage when withCliff Kingsbury, and I get why.
I that's that's a staple of mostoffenses there. But to see him get
used on kind of a intermediate slantroute and he got shoe strung. Otherwise

(17:06):
he goes to the house if heif they can enter, if they can
do that a couple of times agame. Get him a little more vertical,
yes, yes, and not justand not just like running you know,
deep routes, just running down thefield, but to give him a
little bit of space like this,like this offense will have just a little

(17:27):
bit of movement, a little bitof cut get get him just a little
bit of leverage, but down thefield that that might unlock something. And
the fact that the one play andhe got shoe strung, and he was
so upset when he when he gotshoe strung because he saw the field that
he had in front of him.But yeah, it was, it was.

(17:48):
There was a lot to like.I thought that, and I when
I saw the playing time at theend, it was like, holy cow.
The snap counts. Blake Whiteheart,the undrafted tight end. I think
he recovered well because a cuplier inthe game. He he had a couple
of drops, at least one drop, and but for him to bounce back,

(18:08):
he ended up leaving the team andcatches almost at the top and he
had five catches for forty two yards, played the most out of literally any
either team, and they're giving hima long look probably to be their tight
end for but then just to seeand David Blow has never played I don't

(18:30):
know about the preseason, but inhis nine NFL games that he has played
in the end in the league,everyone has been a loss. He's owen
seven as a starter, and thenthe two other games he's played in he
came up and mop up time inmassive blowouts. And so it was almost
funny to listen to him after thegame in the locker room. But there's

(18:52):
a reason why he's not used tobeing part of wins. It's never happened
before. Yeah, and so it'syou know, it was important. And
that's the thing is, like,you know, we we kind of talked
about it a little bit and beataround the bush a little bit, but
that wind matters in the grand schemeof things, right, and that's something

(19:15):
that will we'll discuss after we talkabout the defense. But like just getting
that mentality, it's going to besomething that we have to have to see
this organization get to and through.Right. Yeah, absolutely well, on

(19:36):
the defensive side of the ball.I think we both mentioned LJ. Collier
Watkins had the had the block.But was there were there any player in
particular that that caught your eye.I think we all saw some potential control
Clark. I don't know. Yeah, I felt like that's too lowing of
fruit right right like that, that'sthe obvious one. He was active,

(19:59):
that obvious. The one big playwas the diving pass break up that when
he closed that that space that hehad. But defensively it was it was
interesting to see because you saw alittle bit from Cameron Thomas get some pressure.
You saw from do we know whatthe injury that's holding him out?
They don't held us anything it isand they do and they don't have to

(20:21):
do a They don't have to doan injury report right not until the regular
season because that's you know, becausejust so people know, the only two
people that aren't practicing right now thatyou know have been playing and practicing our
Cam Thomas and Jeff Driscold and Driscolldidn't even dress for the game. So
and he's not making the team anyway, it doesn't matter. He's cut five

(20:44):
on the roster. But I thought, I thought, you know, for
for what we need to see toget just a little bit of pop.
Zaven Collins didn't look like we sawhim rest and start to look like a
pretty good off ball linebacker. Hedidn't look bad. He didn't look bad
at all on the edge in thelimited amount of time he played, no,

(21:12):
and he looked like he was comfortable. And that's one of the conversations
that we're continually going to have andsomething that we're gonna continually talk about is
the comfort level of these players intheir new job schemes whatever you know.
And so Zaven, you know,you mentioned it off the top. Keyshrol

(21:34):
Clark was probably like the standout guyjust because he played you know, twenty
nine snaps. He and he lookedlike a good cover corner and you're just
like, oh, they need oneof those. You know. Zaven got
seven snaps. I mean LJ gotseven snaps. Like, we can't judge

(21:56):
a whole lot, but what wesaw was undoubtedly it was positive. Yes,
that that's the main thing. Andjust was like the in those seven
snaps with the starters on the field, You're like, oh, they don't
look bad. No, And butI thought another guy that stood out and
played well was was Antonio Hamilton.You know, he was in the game

(22:18):
quite a bit. He played thirtyfive snaps, which I always talk about
that. I'm very confused about that. Yeah, I was gonna ask you
do you think that's a red flagor let We'll get to that a little
bit. I'm very good because guesswhat, dudes listed his number one on
the depth chart. That's the that'sone of those things you're like, I
don't understand that. And then he'splayed, Yeah, he played pretty well.

(22:41):
He had that He had that reallybad pass interference late in the game,
which set up the basically you know, Cannon didn't say it, Blow
died they let them score. Yeah, at the end of the game like
that. That was that that wentunset until David Blow. David Blow said
and they got to like, weneed to let him score so we could

(23:02):
come back and try to do something. I was like, oh, because
that wasn't mentioned by anyone else.So that in the case that the Cardinals
strategically said after that past interference atthe end, like yeah, they're going
to let them score. And thenyou know, I thought, I thought
Demi Cagi played pretty well. Uhyou mentioned, you know, his his

(23:25):
play on the on the rollout,and then from there it was you know,
guys flash. We saw a littlebit from Christian Matthew, We saw
a little bit from Isaiah Simmons,we saw a little bit from from the
rookie the late round d tackle.I thought I had a couple of nice,

(23:51):
nice plays Dante Stills. Yeah,you know, so like you saw
a little bit from everybody, right, And that's kind of the bigger again,
the bigger thing. It's like theseguys getting comfortable and what they're being
asked to do and showing some abilityto make plays. It was good to
see, man Like I was.I was again, I was pleasantly surprised

(24:15):
at more than anything, how fastand physical the defense looked like they looked
like they were They just looked readyto go. Yeah, and I think
that might be one of the best. And I think that is a product
of a new team and basically withnew coaching staff, new scheme, because

(24:42):
what we'd seen the previous couple ofyears with the Cardinals under Kingsbury, they
knew what they were like, theyknew they were what they were doing,
and so they were just they werejust trying to just trying to somehow make
it through the preseason and the cultureis different, and obviously it's but where

(25:04):
there they had We learned the fiveplayers that the Cardinals views as too important
not to play, right, thatwould be James Connor, Hollywood, DJ
Kaiser, and Buddha. And thenyou have a handful of other guys where
her exact ERTs was hurt. Obviouslyhe's coming off pup Kayler's out, but

(25:26):
of their healthy guys, of thehealthy guys, you can say, Okay,
these five guys are too important toplay in the preseason, but everyone
else played some and I think Ilove and we talked about in the last
show how they how they handled trainingcramp practices. It was a way to
sort of avoid the notion of veterandays off because they would go intense and

(25:49):
they would lighten up the next day. They would do a slower pace so
that everyone's body was taken care of, and yet you're still creating the culture
of practice. Yeah, and that'sthat's one of the things too. And
you know, again we'll talk aboutit once. We're kind of talking about
how important to win was, butjust how engaged everybody was late in the

(26:11):
game, right, like it's aculture thing that they're trying to put in,
and you're, you know, you'rementioning the culture of the coaching and
guys buying in. But I thinka lot of it comes down to you
and I have had this conversation offthe air a dozen times. A lot
of it comes down to, thisis the most I've seen coaches teaching in

(26:33):
a long time, like taking timeto teach. I don't want to say
fundamentals because that that takes away frombut like the intricacies of positions and you
know, the details that go alongwith playing certain positions. And maybe no
bigger example than you know, whatthey're doing with Zavin right like you see

(26:56):
it in practice, you see iton the videos. Things like that they're
taking their time with him and thenthey're saying there again, we'll come back
to that word. They're trying tofind that comfort level in him, and
it just seems like instead of beinglike, hey, this is what you've
done your whole life, and thisis what we want you to do,
like telling them, it's like,hey, let's show you exactly how we

(27:17):
expected to be played and then we'lldo it, and then we'll do it
and then we'll do it, andthen we'll do it, and then we'll
do it again, and then whenyou think you got it, we'll do
it some more. Yes, andthen it's like, okay, where where
are we at? And so youknow, whether it's Isaiah playing safety because
they've been playing the edge, LJcall your you know, like we said,
like just looking like a guy thatcould start in the NFL. That

(27:41):
was that was a question mark.Let's be honest, like a guy that
flamed out in a on a teamthat desperately needs, you know, defensive
help up front and he comes hereand you're thinking to yourself, well,
you know, and somebody's got rightand then right, and then for him

(28:02):
to just be competent, it's justsuch a yeah, it's just it was.
It was good to see and itwas positive. Obviously there were negatives,
and there's negatives every game, butthere was more. Again, there
was a lot to complain about nowthere. I thought there was just two

(28:25):
guys on defense that what's the wordI'm looking for maybe that we had expectations
for that didn't look like we wouldprobably have hoped. And again it was
the first game, but I thinkit a lot of it came down to,
like also when they were on thefield, you know, it was

(28:51):
it was it was interesting and oneof those guys actually played well and Antonio
Hamilton, but the other guy waswere Chard Lawrence. Yeah, yeah,
well we'll get we'll get to theplay rotation because that is intriguing as heck
to me because we we we thoughtthat was a case of the depth chart
just being kind of whatever. Thatwith the defensive line, the depth chart

(29:14):
followed exactly the playing rotation anyway.Coming next on the res of here At
podcast, abust Our Cardinals talk onthe Love It's most move on and talk
about the importants of the wind likewhy why didn't matter in the preseason even
that's coming to next on the RiseUp She Read You're Back on the res
of s Read podcast Best Our Cardinalstalk on the Web. The Cardinals had
not won a game at home sinceOctober thirtieth, and they look pretty miserable.

(29:36):
Twenty one. Yikes, that's sobad, so bad. Yeah,
and so it's been forever forever.They'd want to they'd won a game at
home, and to do it ina presecon game, it's a preseason game,
but to do it in front ofyour home crowd. In the first

(29:56):
game with the new coaching staff.You know what Jonathan Ganna was preaching,
compete, compete, compete, wewant to win, we want to compete.
And obviously you're not throwing your startersout there late in the game,
but but you preach competition. Andso you've got the quote unquote scrubs cam'p
bodies out there playing. You're stillhaving them play to win, trying that

(30:18):
that that game matters, that thefinal score matters, that the performance that
they have matters. And I didexactly that. And here's the thing.
This is, I think exactly thesort of thing that you build on,
even if it's it's just the preseason, but when you have a coach that
that prides on trust the process,the results will take care of themselves.

(30:41):
Compete, compete, compete, compete, winning behaviors, winning behaviors, champion
behaviors. And to have that payoffin preseason game one that I think just
even though it doesn't mean anything inthe standings, I think it does create
a of a cacheer of trust andjust so if there is adversity, they've

(31:03):
seen the results once at least andas long as they see as you see
some results or you see close gamesor even a win that every once in
a while that that you don't expectevery time that happens. When the coaching
staff is preaching this, it reinforcesit rather than because Steve Wilkes preached pretty

(31:25):
much the same thing but had noresults and so it ranked hollow. Yeah,
and you know it's one of thosesituations too, where you're not preaching.
You're not preaching things that are outof out of line. You're preaching

(31:45):
like hey, like you said,trust the process. Hey, you know,
buy into the details matter and thosethings are important. And you know,
it's one of the conversations we've had, you know, fair or not.
We've gotten more of a behind thescenes peak of of the Cliff Kingsbury

(32:08):
era than probably any coach we've we'veever seen between Hard Knocks and now that
that Jenny Johnny Manzel documentary on Netflix. And you know, Cliff was just
one of those guys that expected guysto to be on it themselves. And

(32:30):
this is a conversation you and Ihave had before about how the game has
changed so much. And you know, you have the tight end university and
the pass Rush Collective and all thewide receivers that do workouts, you know,
and things like that, and allof these things are now almost self

(32:52):
reliant, like if you want toif you want to get really good,
you have to go out and findthat time and that that effort on your
own, and that even kind ofcreeps into practice, right, like,
hey, we gotta install. Wedon't have time to go over the details.
We don't have time to go overthe minutia of things. And and

(33:15):
Gannon and his staff thus far seemto have gone the opposite direction with that,
right they're like, hey, let'speel back or pull back on the
oh, we gotta we gotta getthings installed, and say, hey,
we can go real basic, butwe have to do it really well and

(33:35):
then we can add more onto yourplate. Like once once we're able to
get more, we will or youguys will be able to handle more,
will give you more. And that'sjust a different mentality, right, It's
just a different way of going aboutit. And and like you said,
the winds are become what's important becausethey have to buy into that that oh

(34:00):
they're they're doing this and they're doingit for me, and it's working look,
you know, and like I said, I think one of the coolest,
biggest things that we saw was justthat everybody seemed engaged at the end.
You had Paris Johnson, you haveKyler Murray running out on the field
right like, everybody was engaged.So it mattered from one to ninety as

(34:25):
opposed to like you're saying, likea lot of times when the starters are
done, they're checked out, they'redone, and quite frankly, a lot
of them are done before they getstarted, right like they're like, hey,
whatever, it's just preseason game.I don't care. But like to
see them engaged, to see themwanting to cheer on their team and be

(34:46):
a part of it. And youknow when when Demarcado got in to see
him, to see them lose theirminds and be so happy, it was
just it was a cool, areally cool situation. And I thought it,

(35:07):
you know, I thought it playedout well and it's a good beginning
that like you said, I don'tknow if it matters or not, but
I think for this moment it's important. I believe it is absolutely And the
end results the wind doesn't matter.The way they won does matter because it

(35:34):
shows execution of things that they've practiced. It shows offensive competency, it shows
the ability to manage the clock.It was just it was it was just
good to see. And I willjust say the locker room the last half
season at least was so heavy theteam felt it was it was a light

(36:04):
again. There was music playing andgrants, it's just a preseason, but
you could hear cheers, you couldhear music. Guys were upbeat. It
was something we hadn't felt in thelocker room. And it stayed farm Stadium
in the locker room in forever.And maybe that's something that can continue.
Now. Do I expect this teamto be angry when they lose. Probably

(36:29):
that's what happens when you create akind of a culture of competition. They're
not they're not gonna react well tolosing. But but I think I think
that the siege are there. Andlike, like I've said, like I
love the approach Gannon takes because itreminds it takes the everything that's good about
Jim Harbaugh, but ignores the partwhere he's abrasive, annoying and kind of

(36:52):
an ahole, like like kid.People can't can't stand him. Players seem
to be drawn to Gannon and hisapproach because I think they they recognize the
the genuinity, the just how genuinehis approach. We're caring for players.

(37:12):
He coaches them hard, he hasexpectations like these are the expectations. But
he also shows that it's about he, like he keeps saying it, coaches
serve players. It is our jobto take care of them into the like
we we want to establish this culture, but that players know that that he
also cares as much as that mattersfor football players. They like the set

(37:37):
up. Kyler Murray is going tothrive in this because of the structure and
expectations. They say, Kyler,we expect you to do this. He's
like, I'm gonna do it asopposed to it seemed like before Kyler,
you know, save us, andI think he grew tired of that.
Like he he rises to the occasionof high expectations in coaching, I think

(38:00):
right. And that's you know,one of the things that it's been fun
to watch because this is a teamthat desperately needed leadership and you know when
they had Bruce Arians, they hadArians and then you know Palmer. I

(38:22):
think Palmer was a leader in thesense of a veteran, right like he
wasn't he wasn't the fiery, takecharge type. And you know, obviously
Larry Fitzgerald just never that way.But what Palmer was was like, yeah,
go with me, guys. Yeah. He was the calming, like
I'll show you guys how we're goingto get their type. But he was

(38:44):
never like the you know, TomBrady rah rah, you know, even
the Patrick Mahomes type like he washe was. I mean, I'm trying
to even think of who he's closeto right now. But yeah, And
so when you had a coach thatwasn't that way, and you had a

(39:05):
quarterback that's not that way, andyou had, you know, an enigmatic
wide receiver who's insanely talented but kindof a loaner, right, you know,
and then they And it's why itmade so much sense that when JJ
walk out here, it really galvanizedeverybody because it was like everybody was following

(39:28):
that lead. And it also makessense why when walk got hurt, things
fell apart, right, Like,obviously there's more to it than just that,
but like nobody stepped in to fillthat void or fill that role,
and you know, on those onthose arians teams. You had a Calais
Campbell, you know, you hadeven likes and Gerard Powers, Patrick Peterson

(39:52):
had had already kind of taken thatrole like that secondary? Was that secondary
in terms of leaders they were?That was such a good group, right,
And I just don't think people understand, like, you know, even
people talk about like a Matthew versusBaker and how similar they can be as
a stylistically playing but like Matthew isa is a hyped up leader type,

(40:20):
whereas as Buddha is very much ago about your business. Like Buddha's like,
I'm gonna set the tone and youguys need to follow me. And
that's like it's just they just didn'thave that voice, and they still don't
necessarily from a player perspective, butthey have it in a in a head
coach right now and in the wayhe's emboldening his coaching staff and his you

(40:45):
know, and so that again,like he said, that's just gonna build
this trust and and hopefully hopefully galvanizethe team as a whole, and then
you start getting leadership and the heyguys, this works, let's all follow
you know, let's all be intogether. Coming on next in the resumes
here Red Podcast Spister of Cardinals talkon the web. Let's talk about a

(41:05):
variety of things, zach ERT's roster, moot's play rotations. That's coming next.
Rise up. She read, We'reback on the resumes Red Podcast,
Spiser of Cardinals talking Web. Let'slet's kind of talk about the playing rotation.
Some observation. We saw that youbrought up Antonio Hamilton and this isn't
This is a very interesting thing tome because he's listed number one of the

(41:27):
depth chart. It's important to notethat his twenty twenty one three salary is
one hundred percent guaranteed. Jonathan Gannonwas glowing about what he said about Hamilton,
but he only played like five specialteam snaps and he played a gob
ton of time with the third stringers. I don't know what to think of

(41:49):
that, honestly. I like,normally, if you are playing that much
late and you're not a starter,that usually means yeah, you're you're somehow
a bubble guy. Yes, AndI will say the way they have the
way the roster's looking the cornerback room, because you know that you've got you've

(42:09):
got Marco Key Treill You've got ChristianMatthew, you assume he's a walk for
the roster, but then you've gotAntonio Hamilton's completely guaranteed salary. You've got
Garrett Williams, who hasn't come offNFI and we don't know if he will.
You've got Chris Boyd, who isa special teams guy, plays a
ton on special teams and and playeda lot of special teams and he is

(42:30):
guaranteed I think four hundred thousand dollarsof his salary this year too. So
how think how that roster builds out. It's super interesting. I don't know
if if Hamilton is in danger,but I can't I'm not sure what to
think about that. Yeah, I'mwith you, because it was just such

(42:52):
an odd usage, right, somethingwe just don't we didn't expect to see,
and for him to end up playingso much when it wasn't I don't

(43:13):
want to say it wasn't necessary,because obviously that's that's you know, disrespectful
to the coaches, but like,it just was, I guess surprising that
he was one of the guys thatwas spending so much time on the field
in the preseason. Like it's justit was just it was completely unexpected.

(43:37):
I don't want to say shocking,but like you know, it just wasn't
something. It was one of thosehuh, I don't know what to think
of that. Yeah, And itwas just I mean, it was just
odd because, like you said,he was in the game at the end,
and for a veteran that typically meanswhat you're on the bubble or like
they want to see something out ofyou. But like, I don't know,

(43:59):
So it would be interesting to seehow this all unfolds, because I
think as of right now, it'sit's up in the air if it matters.
But I think right now you're alsolooking at it and going all right,
like, make this make sense tome? Please. Another thing that

(44:23):
I was super intrigued by playing wisewas the defensive line rotation because I wasn't
like, I wasn't sure whether Ibelieved the depth chart of on the defensive
line because it had LJ. Collierlike you Foe two and Jonathan Ledbetter and
Richard Lawrence was listed as the numberthree nose tackle. Now, the way

(44:45):
they played they're playing rotation matched itperfectly. But the one thing I noticed
is this, I would guess probablyalmost all Cardinals fans that felt of the
of the defensive lineman that returned thisyear. So you got lad Better,
You've got Richard Lawrence, that you'vegot Lucky Photo that if you had to
pick one who probably wasn't going tomake the team was Lucky Photo. And

(45:07):
right now it looks he's firmly establishedas their starting nose tackle. I find
it interesting that I think this isa quiet move, that the that the
that this coaching staff has done,because they moved Isaiah Simmons, they moved
Saving Collins and when when Lucky IfI will say this, I love the
Lucky Photo was one of my favoritedraft picks because I saw potential and I

(45:31):
think the Cardinals did too. Andhe literally only plays nose tackles at Utah,
but has athleticism suggests that he coulddo something more. And then he
was used like never nose tackle andhis play was very underwhelming. If he's

(45:52):
only a nose tackle and he becomesa starter, that's kind of fun.
Although so I mean it is asurprise, and because and if all,
if we had to look at thoseguys lead Better, Foe Too and Lawrence,
we figured that Richard Lawrence would probablybe the one most likely to be
the favorite to play a lot orto be that the lock on the roster,

(46:12):
and right now, Foe Too andlead Better are starters right now.
Yeah, And and you know,it's gonna be interesting how they scheme and
develop this entire defensive line, rightbecause right now we just have no idea

(46:37):
what their plans are or how they'regoing to go about it. But as
you said, as of right now, they have got about it in the
way that they said they would ontheir their depth chart, and so it's
it's just really going to be somethingto watch because we just, yeah,

(47:04):
I don't know, man, it'sit's weird to see it. It's weird
to see them continue to make adjustmentson it. So you know it'll be

(47:25):
it'll just be interesting. I guessit is the only way we can really
put it right, to see whatthey do and how they go about things.
Zach Ertz back from PUP. I'mgonna say we won't see him period
till a week one. I wasgoing to ask you that, like,
there's no way there's now because onethey're slow rolling him in, so there's

(47:46):
no way he plays this week,right, There's no way he would play
no matter what in the Vikings gamebecause that's preseason game three and I and
they don't have to make cuts,remember that, like right, get the
all ninety guys still, and soI think he'll probably get some work in
their joint practices. But I thinkthe plan is maybe they are they're just

(48:09):
the goal is Week one. There, they've basically got four weeks of practice
before Week one hits, and they'regoing to use that to build him up,
strengthen him and be ready for that. Then he won't need any preseason
reps. But that said that,especially with one of the things that was
notable in the offense, how involvedthe tight ends and the running backs are

(48:32):
in the passing game, and havingzach Ertzbach will be even if he doesn't
have to be explosive Philadelphia Eagles guy, but if he's a reliable targets,
you know, he's a reliable target, that means you know, five six,
seven yards, Like even if he'sdoing basic routes, you are moving

(48:53):
the sticks with your tight ends,and that should open things up down the
field. Maybe not necessarily. Well, we'll call McCoy's at quarterback. They're
gonna dink and done because his armis is that you know, it doesn't
have a whole bunch of left.But at least there's there's the potential there
with Kyler Murray when he gets backright, and there's a little bit more
that they can do, you know, running the ball and things of that

(49:15):
nature with the quarterback obviously, andso it'll just be, yeah, it'll
be uh interesting to see how itgoes. Again. It's just we just
don't really have any idea what thisis going to look like. But like
you said, the fact that they'vegot guys now coming back and we'll see

(49:43):
how this plays itself out, howit how they end up getting into these
reps and things like that. That'llall be something to to watch moving forward
because right now it's been you know, easy because a lot of the main

(50:05):
guys aren't out there, right Andso, do you think we're gonna see
Connor or those guys you talked aboutat all this? I doubt it.
I doubt it. I think Ithink those five in particular, maybe Hollywood
a little bit, maybe Hollywood alittle bit. And now we add arts
to that mix, right, Yeah, So but so let me ask you

(50:28):
this is that do you think moreabout them deciding that they don't they don't
want to take any chances, ordo you think if Kyler was healthy that

(50:50):
they would that they would have playedthese guys. You know, that's a
good point because maybe maybe they wouldhave. I actually think that it might
have something more to do with theguys behind them in the rotation. James
Conner, you know, was goingto make the roster to trust him,
and there's really nothing behind him.It was like who, like, who's

(51:14):
the guy? And they didn't evenhave Cantar Ingram in Canta Ingram, so
it was Corey Clement, Tyson Williamsand mar Demcado show something like DJ Humphreys
not playing was okay, let's giveKelvin Beecham time and left tackle. That
that did honestly, that was kindof telling that when DJ was out,

(51:35):
they didn't put johsh Jones at lefttackle. It was Calvin Beacham. I
don't know if it was to showcasehim, because I've always felt that the
battle there's gonna be there's a verynotable battle between him and Josh Jones.
I don't know if you can haveboth on the roster with behind DJ and
Paris Johnson, but that was notable. And then you obviously Buddha this this

(52:00):
is a way to make sure thatyou get Isaiah more snaps at safety.
And plus you've got it, youneed to figure out who your fourth safety
is. Yeah, I was gonnaask you about that. What did you
make of the is that Shawn Tuckera different Shaan Tucker signing Sean Chandler.
Chandler, Sorry, I guess whatI think for sure, he's a camp

(52:22):
body. He d suspended, he'ssuspended for the first two two games of
the year. Why in the worldwould they sign him now to because especially
you've got I'm not sure. Itwas very interesting because that fourth safety spot,
if they keep four safeties, you'vegot three guys who who legitimately can
do that. You've got Shashari chasheriwas with the Eagles last year, played

(52:45):
a lot of special teams. JujuHughes was the first, so Juju ended
up being the first safety in thegame after Jalen left. And then you
add the fact he played special teamsand then you've got Chavante Moffatt as well.

(53:06):
That fourth safety spots super intriguing.In the addition of Sean Chandler to
me tells me somebody got hurt andthat they're trying to get through the games.
I think because I don't know whyyou would sign a guy right now
who's going to be suspended for thefirst two weeks. Yeah, I was
just curious because, like you said, we know there's a battle for the
fourth position, but is it goingto be a guy that can contribute mostly

(53:30):
on specials or is it going tobe a guy like Chaucer that's gotten reps
in games, especially in the gainin rallis defense, right, Yeah,
So so it'll be interesting because yeah, it's just I mean, this whole
dynamic is playing out differently than whatwe've seen before, and a lot of

(53:52):
that comes from the unknown obviously,as you said early in this whole thing,
but and figuring everything out, andit's fun to see it unfolded.
It actually makes it fun because itfeels so different than and it wasn't that
long ago that Kingsbury and you know, and then Wilkes, like, it
just feels so different from both ofthose camps to now this and seeing where

(54:16):
they are and what what's how thisis how they're going about things. No,
Kaizier White gave Chris Barnes in andJosh Wood's ample time to to play,
and I was those those are twoof the guys that are slightly disappointed
with. I just didn't see therewas nothing notable about what they did.

(54:38):
But but let's also say this.It's clear that White is the catalyst or
the guy that's gonna make that thatlinebacking corpse go. So in that instance,
you kind of have to look atit and go okay. I mean

(54:58):
it's not you don't want to sayokay in the sense of like it doesn't
matter, but more okay in thesense of it's it's like, okay,
we have to take that with agrain assault because the guy that's gonna the
guy they're expecting to be the playmaker, wasn't around. Yeah, yeah,
and yeah. It's it's just interestingto see how that playing time goes.

(55:21):
They did add shot chand that wetalked about. I can't imagine he's more
than a camp body. They releasedStevie Scott to me because they had signed
Stevie Scott last week. To me, his release tells me Kyante's back right
that. That's what it says tome, because they didn't use him in
the game, they only use Clement, Ty Williams and Demarcado. To me,

(55:46):
that says, okay, Kyante's back, and so we're gonna see Kyante
probably starting. Well, we'll kindof see because Scanty is a head of
Clement on the depth chart. Let'ssee if he gets more work with the
ones on Saturday, just to kindof see where that at, because at
least if Ingram shows a little somethingand that we don't know, we just

(56:15):
don't have a gauge on that becausethey didn't go out and get a veteran
running back, which means you thinkthat they trust one of the guys on
the roster to be behind Connor.And if there's anyone that you trust,
what wouldn't you probably think that's Ingraminstead of Clement, who's been a mostly
special teams guy. Yeah, he'sbeen mostly a third down back and then
special teams guys. So yeah,you'd want to see Ingram. And then

(56:37):
you know Tim Mercado like he waslike he wasn't even the guy at TCU,
but he's a he is one ofpractice squad guy. Well, and
you know he's a potential potential fourthback if they keep four running backs.
Because what he does well is likeintangibly type things like you saw him with

(56:58):
the two point conversion. But butI have talking to my buddy Eric Sornson,
who is a big TCU guy.Demarcado does things like pass pickup,
so pass pro and things like that, so things that you want to see
he didn't. He can return kicks, he never did it really at TCU,
but he's a guy to kind ofwatch, Like, I'm very intrigued,
like, are they going to keepthree on the roster? Three running

(57:19):
backs on the roster? Are theygonna keep four? You'd think they'd probably
keep four, But you can alsoride with three and practice squad elevate your
way to to those moves later onexactly. And that's I think that's just
what the plan is with him.So we'll see how it kind of plays
out. But I thought Tyson Williamsdid look good too, though, Yeah,

(57:42):
absolutely he was. I had himon my fifty three man roster projection.
It's like, after how he did, I bumped him into the to
the final roster for that spot.But he's got a little bit and it
will say there's a there is alittle history of by you guys coming in
and you know, being successful.We see it. We saw it from

(58:06):
was it? What was the GreenBay slash? Detroit got Jamal Williams.
Jamal Williams. Yeah, b yu guy you've got now Tyler rous Year,
Puka no Kua is making a littlebit of noise in Los Angeles the
receiver and Hi Williams, he's youknow, he's bounced around a little bit.
He hasn't really done much. Butas a as a role player type

(58:28):
guy, it wouldn't it wouldn't surpriseme at all. That's said anything.
They technically still have a roster move, roster spot available. Where where do
you think that's going to be oror are they simply managing bodies at this
point? You think, Yeah,I think they're just managing bodies right now,

(58:51):
you know, I think I thinkthey have ideas of what they want
to do, but I think atthe same time, it's one of those
situations where you kind of let therosters play to you, right Yeah,
Jeff Driscoll, guess what, Ithink they are simply waiting for him to
be healthy to cut because he didn'tdress for the game. He didn't dress
for practice, So I don't knowif he's hurt. But the fact that

(59:15):
because why why in the world doyou need four quarterbacks on the roster aside
from Kyler that especially when they're especiallywhen they're given as much plain time to
Clayton tune as they are right exactly. Somebody asked me the other day if
I thought David Blow had a chanceto be the backup, and I said,
I just don't see it. Isee a potential work he can make

(59:37):
the roster right, and that isif Kyler starts the season on pup right,
which is makes the rosters QB threethat way, because that new emergency
quarterback you know rule that they havethat cannot be practice squad elevation. He
has got to be out. He'sgot to be burning a roster spot.

(59:58):
Solow, I was a guy youcould have on as player fifty three to
be on the roster basically as youremergency QB unless and I don't think they
would do that. Maybe he'd bethe active backup one game or game or
two, and you you use clearly, you know, you let Clayton be

(01:00:21):
the emergency QB three because you knowyoung we're off that sort of thing.
You might trust Blow a little bitmore in a game scenario if you had
to come in for for quote McCoy. But yeah, I basically think that
that, you know, Jeff Driscollis just just a guy right now,
David Blow, I don't think theyare. They seem firmly committed to Clayton

(01:00:45):
tune and so David Blow at thispoint is auditioning for other teams practice squad
or in the case if Kyler isnot taken off PUP before the regular season,
that he can be on the rosterfor a handful of weeks for about
four weeks, right, And that'sthe plan you would have to assume right

(01:01:06):
now. But you know, overallI was I was pleasantly surprised and then
happy. I think that's the bestway to put it. Like you're everybody.
I think everybody was like, oh, this is this was good,
but and then it you know,and then it ended up in a win,

(01:01:27):
and you're like, oh, thatwas nice, Like that was nice
to see. And it was absolutelyespecially because you know what, preseason games
can be terrible to watch, especiallyif they if they get a if you
get behind, if there's like moreof a than a one score difference the
fourth quarter, they are unwatchable football. And this was exciting because you you

(01:01:51):
had a rally, you had thetouchdown by the by the Broncos, then
you had the game win and drivebut the Cardinals. It made the end
of a season game watchable. Andif let's be honest, some people like
to watch the preseason. Very fewpeople watch the fourth quarter of the preseason
games, right right. You arethe crazy people that do that, the

(01:02:15):
crazy people that have to yeah,absolutely yes. And so for us,
I think that's why we can sayit was such a positive because you just
look at it and you're like,oh, this was fun. Yep.
And with that, we'll go aheadand repp this edition of the Rise of
Seer podcast best Our Cornell's Talk ofthe Web. I will do a solo

(01:02:38):
show, so I'll just push offtalking about the next game a couple of
days. You'll get that probably workThursday night Friday morning, and then we'll
be back next week to talk aboutthe game that's seth Cox. I'm Jess
Route. This is episode four fiftyone. Thanks for listening. As always,

(01:02:58):
thanks for listening to the latest editionof the Rise Up Sea Red podcast.
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(01:03:19):
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(01:03:51):
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