Cardinals vs. Broncos preseason preview

The Arizona Cardinals open their preseason schedule at home against the Denver Broncos on Friday. Jess does a solo show to talk about what to watch — what he wants to see and what players he is watching in particular. He starts the show, though, discussing comments that Colt McCoy said about Kyler Murray's return.

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, the Lowers on the Cardinalsfans, and welcome to the latest edition

(00:34):
of the Rise Up Secret Podcast.I'm your host Jess Root from cardswire dot
Com, the USA Today, NFLwire Side and this is solo pod for
me. It is just me inthis episode, episode four hundred and fifty,
recording on a Thursday night. Isthis is This is intended to be
the Cardinals preseason opener preview talk abouta couple of things. We have the

(00:57):
card up training camp, and thatmeans that no more public practices, no
more reporting about what we see atpractice. And it means everything moves back
to Tempe. And what does thatmean, Well, it means a few
things. Well, one thing thatwe know is that. And I want

(01:18):
to talk about a couple of thingsI want to talk about in this edition
of the show. What Colt McCoyrecently said about Kyler Murray and his potential
return, and wasn't news necessary necessarilybecause he said it before, but also
is it with the Cardinals coming up, kind of talk about my players to

(01:38):
watch and kind of what I wantto see and what Jonathan Ganna wants to
see in this game. Let's getstarted talking about Colt McCoy's comments about Kyler
Murray. Colt, in a recentinterview said that Kyler's to return sooner rather

(01:59):
than later. What does this meannow that this is not the first time
Colt said this. In fact,I think this is the second or third
time that Colt has talked about Kylercoming back sooner rather than later. And
that that isn't news. That partisn't news, but it's just what does
that mean? What does that mean? Because Kyler Stolt still is on pup,

(02:23):
so he is ineligible to practice,and where we are he did say
initially, he did say initially hewas the goal was to start the season.
I still think that's probably unreasonable becausethat would be eight months post surgery,
and while it's been done before,I don't think that's going to be

(02:47):
the case this time around, especiallysince he hasn't had any practice reps.
Now, if we think about weare a month, we are recording on
this on this Thursday night. Weare exactly one month from the start of
the season, so it would seemreasonable. It would seem reasonable to me

(03:07):
that if there's any chance of Kylerplaying in the opener, then the latest
he basically I think the latest hecould come off pup would be after the
Chiefs game next week, and thatwould give him a solid two and a

(03:30):
half, like a solid two anda half weeks of practice. And even
then, I would say, probablymore reasonable would be we can really think
about him playing in the opener ifhe's if he comes off pup this next
week, I don't think that's goingto happen. I still think so here's

(03:52):
where it would what could happen.If he's on pup to start, they
if they move him to the reasonpup, he will have to miss four
games and then they can make adecision. After that they can activate him
and get into practice. I've alwaysthought, if if you listen to what
I've said on the show, andI kind of predicted in the in the

(04:13):
game by game predictions, that theway too early predictions. I'm thinking about
Week six, that Week six game, and that would in a sense create
the most roster flexibility because that wouldhave to carry Kyler Murray on the roster
for that that at the beginning partof the season, because you could if

(04:36):
if week six is kind of thetarget, you could have him begin the
season on pup, activate him forpractice after week four, and then he
has two full weeks to really getyou know, get the reps that he
needs to then start by week six, because that that's the tricky part part

(04:57):
because you can't actually do any lotteam practice until you're off. Of that.
The other thing that they could dois if he's if he's taken off,
if he's activated before the season,that means that they're targeting somewhere before

(05:20):
week four that not say would beweek one, but really is is if
they choose to take him a popso he can start bringing that means they
anticipate him being being back on thefield in the first four games of the
season. Again, he had buthe had surgery at the beginning of January,

(05:45):
which would mean like if you're lookingat it, even a fairly fairly
you know, reasonable or even optimisticrecovery, especially since he had the tornamentiscus
as well, you're nine nine monthsand that put him in kind of the
middle, and so you're you're thinkingthat that four to six week four to
week six range. Where was Kyler? Rat Kyler talked about where he's at.

(06:09):
He doesn't know what his timetable is. He's nowhere near that and until
until he comes off of that list. The truth of the matter, we
don't have a timeline because it's atthat point. Is he doing more?
I have heard that. I haveheard that he is doing more, not

(06:30):
witnessed it, but that his recovery, his rehab, his what he's being
tested on is more than just straightline running. That there is some change,
a little bit of change of directionhappening, and it is happening fairly
aggressively, and that that's going tobe kind of the last step in that
he's got to feel comfortable making allthe moves and then getting on the practice

(06:50):
field and practicing with the team.And so for sure, what does that
mean, Like with Colt McCoy sayings, I don't know how much that actually
means because Colts said it before,and I think it is I think basically

(07:11):
saying, hey, target week fourish rather than half the season and later,
which is kind of what people weresuggesting early on that. You know,
he might make miss till miss sidmidseason. He's hitting his rehab hard.
And I'm going to continue you toto say that I think a week
six would be right about the sweetspot. Week five they would actually be

(07:36):
at home to play the Cincinnati Bengals, and so you could have him return
at home in Week five against JoeBurrow and company, or you could have
him on the road in Week sixagainst the La Rams. I don't know.
Now, there are definitely some prosand cons to doing that because you've

(07:56):
got you know, Aaron Donald asalways, but you know, rather than
later is great news, and butit's not altogether surprising. It's it's not
a surprise at all because that's theway it's been trending. That's the way
it's been trending, even with JonathanGannon's consistent stating that he'll play when he's

(08:18):
physically and mentally ready. So yeah, that's that's what I got to say
about that. So coming on nextto the Rice Upsy Red Podcasts Bestar of
Cardinals, talking about let's move forwardto want to talk about the preseason opener
for all the players that I havemy eye on that's coming to next Rise
ups he read We're back on theRice upsy Red podcast, best our Cardinals

(08:39):
talk on the web. Not probablynot in an hour this time, as
I'm doing a solo show, episodefour fifty and the Cardinals host the Denver
Broncos in their preseason open on Fridaynight. You should be able to hear
this before, like hopefully it's downloadingyou actually get to listen to it before
the Cardinals play kickoff at seven pmArizona time to State Farm Stadium. I'll
be there covering the game as Ihave since twenty in the press box and

(09:01):
then post game in the locker inthe press room for the press conferences.
What do I who are the whatI want because let's kind of go down
the list. Number one, Iwant to see the limited amount of Colton
McCoy. How how does the offenselook initially? And I know some people
are suggesting, like if you giveColton McCoy, he's some live game reps

(09:26):
and he looks bad and that mightopen the door for Clayton Tune. I
think that'll happen, especially with theway they've sound about Mount Clayton Tune like
that. He's definitely a rookie,and he's definitely making mistakes, and from
what we've seen in training camp,both quarterbacks have had some struggles. But
there's one thing that I think wecan trust with Colt is the notion of
he will protect himself and he willprotect his teammates. He'll he won't at

(09:50):
least get himself killed, which iswhat if you call the wrong protection or
you don't pick up the right protection, that can happen with a young quarterback
like Tune. I want to ssee him come through that game. I'm
a little healthy. I think everyoneis watching Michael Wilson, the third round
rookie out of Stanford, because ofhow he's looked in training camp. You

(10:13):
know, we need to we needto find out if this is just a
case of the cornerbacks being bad,or if he can do this against other
players. Seth and I've we've talkedabout on the last couple of shows about
we go back to Let's go backto seventeen and Brandon Williams, who looked

(10:33):
like an absolute stud in training campgoing up against Michael Floyd, when the
truth of the matter, Michael Floydwas not in a good place and did
not have a good year and BrandonWilliams ended up getting benched after the first
week of this season when they signedMarcus Cooper and basically halfway through week about
mid second series of week two,and Cooper basically taken William's job. And

(10:56):
so we always take training camp standoutswith a grain assault until we's in preseason
action. I think that's what wewant to see, and especially if he's
going to get first team reps andthe Broncos are going to play their starters
at least early in the game.You know, Jonathan Gamms, how does
he does do against pats or ten? That's you know, that's ultimately it.

(11:18):
How does he look against starting calibercornerbacks from other teams? And so
will we see him get open,will he make plays or will the will
the lights be too bright? Andyou know Crungers. Hopefully he doesn't have
us an injury setback of any endof any of any kind. On the

(11:39):
offensive line, I'm looking at twoplayers in particular. I'm not worried about
DJ Humphreys. I'm not worried aboutElijah Wilkinson truthfully, because he's been a
veteran, but he yelled a froholtat center in Paris Johnson right tackle.
I want to see how the rookiedoes, and more importantly, I want
to see how that center does becauseit feels like that they're rolling with him
as the star unless something drastically changeslike evith Lenek with Seth and I we

(12:03):
mentioned on the last show, isthat he doesn't even crack the top two.
He's the third string center behind fullHold and then rookie John Gaines.
And so let's let's keep an eyeon full Hold, make sure that the
communication between him and the quarterback areis good, that the snaps are quality,
and protections are being called and thenthings like that. So he's another

(12:24):
player I want to watch. I'mgot got my eyes on the young running
backs. I don't think Kiante Ingramy, but Tyson Williams and Married Demarcado.
I don't know if Stevie Scott,the guy that they just signed, uh
yes. And of course Marlon Mackdid tear his achilles, his other achilles.
It was that was always going tohappen, wasn't it. A guy

(12:46):
that's played only fifteen games since twentytwenty tore his left tours right achilles in
twenty twenty and just like I talkedto us I mentioned to Seth in the
last show, is that Corey Petershad just come back from an achilles and
then immediately in training camp tour,this is what happened. He ruptured his
other achilles. He's done for theyear, and they signed a guy Stevie

(13:07):
Scott. You have never heard him. He played in the USFL. He's
bounced around the Broncos and the Saintsassence, you know, entering the league
as an undrafted rookie. So StevieScott maybe get some reps. But I'm
keeping my eye on Tyson will andDeMar Demarcado. They both have an opportunity
to really kind of kind of establishedthemselves to battle for playing time behind James

(13:31):
Connor. On the other side ofthe ball. I don't think b Jiljular
is gonna play. He was justactivated about pup. But you know,
for the few snaps, let's let'ssee if Zaban Colin gets any push in
the pass rush. Cam Thomas,how does he look? And and you
know there's the position battles as wellat linebacker. So aside from Kaiser White,

(13:58):
who does Josh Woods does Chris Barnesmake plays the cornerbacks. Can Keetrill
Clark make plays Christian Matthew or isit or is it going to be Antonio
Hamilton, Because like we've seen firstteam reps in training camp and it was
Marco Wilson's the clear number one,and then you had alternating series with Christian

(14:18):
Matthew and Keatrill Clark, but hisand then Antonio Hamilton is listed as the
as the top guy on the depthchart. So I don't know what we
should not what should we think ofthat? And I think everyone else,
assuming he does get some playing time, wants to see Isaiah Simmons in his
position James in live game action playingdeep safety as he's done. I'm also

(14:41):
intrigued about Jayleen Thompson playing in theslot. He will be primarily in the
slot, but he will still beon the field and in absolute base packages,
sim Simmons will be the one tocome off the field based on what
we've seen in practice. And youknow, call me, call me weirdo,
call me like these deep cuts intothe roster battles, let's let's look

(15:03):
at that, Bob. You wouldn'tthink that there would be real competition between
Nolan Cooley, who's never really stuckon an NFL roster yet. In Matt
Hawk, who's a several year veteranwho has not you know, he's he's
had punting jobs, he's had multipleteams, but he's been a punch he's
been the punter for a team atbasically ever since he entered the league after

(15:28):
out of out of Arizona State,when he entered the league a few years
ago. Is there that much compI'm kind of intrigued too to see that
and to see how they perform aswell. But yeah, and so those
are basicline and there's a bunch ofyoung players as well, like if they
you want to see the draft picks. You want to see the draft picks

(15:50):
kind of do some stuff. Youwant to see if there's any undrafted rookies
to stand out. Does Owen Papothe fifth round insidebacker, superbly athletic,
see him make place? What aboutthe defensive line? How is that gonna
play out? How's there? How'sthat playing rotation gonna gonna play out?

(16:10):
What do we see out of JoshJones as it looks it's gonna be hard
for him and Calvin Beacham to makethe roster in my opinion, the tight
end situation, I'm not so muchbecause ultimately we do know who will be
the top three on the roster,and that's Zach or Its Trey McBride,
and Jeff's Twayman, and you knowUrt is still on pup. McBride barely
got back to practice. I don'tknow if he's gonna get any and maybe

(16:34):
maybe a few snaps, but Ihave dogged doubt it. And Swam has
been injured as well. So weknow those three are gonna be on the
roster. But the guys behind themwho can be there? Is it gonna
be no Noah Toji, Is itgonna be Blake white Hart, Is it
gonna be the kid out of Mischigo, Joan Honigford? Those are the guys
that need to step up. Butyeah, I mean you look at you

(16:56):
look across the just pay attention toJohnathan Into, How do how does the
defense look as well? So thoseare the players I'm at. I think
we're all looking at Clayton Tune aswell. How does he look if he
gets assuming he gets some extended actionafter after Colton McCoy not necessarily to try
to push McCoy, but just givehim some game reps, just to evaluate

(17:18):
him in front of you know,other teams and other defenses than their own
and things like that. I'm moreintrigued to make sure that that Colt McCoy
looks sharp. I don't we knowwhat he is. He's not going to
be a world beater, Like canhe against pretty good Denver defense? Keep
the ball and the offense on schedule. I think that's kind of like what

(17:41):
the priority would be. And soyeah, coming kind of next on the
Residence Here PODCASTI star Cardinal's Talk onthe Web. Let's let's look at a
couple of things. One what JonathanGannon said about what he wants to see
out of the preseason opener. Andalso let's let's dabble a little bit into
the you know, the the betterJust what's it there? And it's a

(18:06):
preseason game. If you're betting thepreseason, I'm sorry, just but he
probably shouldn't do it, but hey, why not? Why not? That's
coming up next on Rise of cRead. We're back on the Rise of
c Read podcast of astera Cardinal's Talkon the Web, and you know,
Jonathan Gannon had some interesting comments aboutwhat he's looking forward to the preseason one

(18:30):
compete like that, which makes sense. He's been he's been preaching competition ever
since he was hired. I thinkit's a competition, and so you don't
want to see the players, andsince it's an actual live game, you
even though the game itself is meaningless, it is not meaningless for those playing
the game. So it is onecompete with the player across from you.

(18:52):
They wants to see that. Hewants the gamer operations to run smoothly,
so everyone involved with the game dayoperations that that goes through. And then
maybe this is a little bit onHarbough and the and the preseason streets the
Baltimore Ravens had, But Jonathan Annonsaid, he did say, like you
want to win, and so thiswhen you when you dread, when you

(19:15):
suit up and you get between thewhite lines, you're trying to win.
And I honestly I don't see anythingwrong with that. They're not going out
in game planning trying to win thegame. But ultimately this is all all
about competition. This is about theplayers competing. So the starters won't be
out there much, if it likemuch at all. I anticipate maybe a
series before they get sent. Butespecially those those young guys late in the

(19:40):
game, thord and fourth stringers.These are guys fighting for evaluation. Can
they squeak onto the roster, canthey show their value to be a practice
squad member? Or can they showenough film for another team to go?
Yeah? I like this and movingforward? So does the actual final score

(20:03):
matter? Not? Not for us. But when you want to base build
a culture of winning, you wantto create a scenario in which even preseason
games matter. Now you're you're planningfor them differently. You're not playing your
starters through the whole game, butyou create the mentality is that even these
young players no play as a team, play your best football, play disciplined

(20:27):
quality football, and try to winthe game, even if, even if
the final score doesn't reflect on anymeaningful as a team. I do really
like that. I like that notion. You know, as a coach,
you want it. You don't wantto send the message to the players that

(20:48):
the preseason games don't matter, becausethey obviously do, and so you want
to go to them with the planyou want to You want to preach winning
culture you want and it's very interestingbecause if the pendulum swung, the yard
that I can dig again and isextremely detailed. He wants things done in

(21:08):
a specific way, believing it ischampionship behaviors, winning behaviors and heats process
orion, not results oriented, inthe idea that you take care of the
day to day, the results willtake care of themselves as long as you
are doing things the right way.That said, let's take a look at

(21:29):
the betting line. Got bet MGMup and you know the Cardinals are not
fake? Are five and a halfpoint underdogs to the Broncos with the money
line at minus two twenty five forthe Broncos plus one eighty for the Cardinals,
and then in a projected total ata low thirty seven points. Now,

(21:53):
I'm not going to try and handicapthe game because preseason games, there's
no way to predict it. Now, what what should you do? If
you're gonna bet preseason games? Here'show I would go about that. If
you want to bet sixteen games,I know some of the games have already
happened, but like whatever games areleft on the schedule, bet the underlying
money line every single time. Seehow it plays out. Because there's there's

(22:18):
no way to look at trends forthe preseason because those trends are meaningless.
Now, what do we expect tosee, you know, thirty seven?
Now, preseason you you usually donot see projected totals that low. And
regular season game and you just don't. You see it usually in the forty

(22:41):
to forty seven range. It's fairlycommon thirty seven is low. But when
we look at this way, we'vegot the Cardinals, who has an unknown
offensive system. It's probably gonna bepretty conservative against a Denver Broncos defense,
while it's gonna be Vanilla is talented, is talented. We do get to,
you know, a couple of things. There's a couple of of of

(23:04):
familiar faces on the Broncos. Allensigned with the Broncos in the offseason and
and also Vans Joseph. They're theCardinals former d Sympathy defensive coordinator is now
the defensive coordinator again back in Denverwhere he used to be a head coach,
And so we'll get to see alittle of that. If I'm looking
at the total I think this week, I'm taking the over I think,

(23:30):
and you're probably looking at probably atwenty four to twenty win by buddy,
I'm not going to try. Andif you want to bet the preseason,
here's my strategy. Don't look atthe spread. Just take the underdog on
the money line on you know,if you want to, just do the

(23:52):
math, because if you, ifyou, if you look at look at
every team with the positive odds withthose plus odds. You know, with
the Falcons game, the Dolphins game, it's plus one fifteen Dolphins at home.
The Bengals are plus one six I'veat home. Interesting that it,
you know, it's the home teamsthat are listed as the underdogs here.

(24:15):
The Lions are plus one twenty fiveagainst the Giants, The Bucks are plus
one twenty two against the Steelers.The Commanders are plus one thirty five against
the Rams. Of Cardinals plus oneeighty, the Bills plus one fifty,
Titans plus one forty, the Jetsplus one forty five. And it looks
like, yes, I think wehave confirmed that the Cardinals in the preseason

(24:37):
or are the most underdog. Theyare the least favored in the entire NFL
as they sit with the with thelongest odds on the money line at plus
one eighty. So congratulations Cardinals.Cardinals fans, we continue to believe that
this team will nationally. The sportsbooks thinks this team is hot garbage.

(25:02):
Preseason football is kind of hot garbage. But we love it. You don't
you love it? Especially the hardcorefans. Oh, you're gonna be watching
that second half and then you're gonnabe rooting for Tyson Williams and Amari Demarcados
saying he is he is him,he got to he's got to find the
roster. Or or oh, let'stake David Amini, the guy that they

(25:22):
just signed about I think it wasa week ago when my j Sanders was
it out keeping that on him.My guess is he'll probably make some noise
in the pass rush just because he'llbe playing late in the game and with
that, so yeah, So whatdo I want to see, first and
foremost stay healthy? We can't know. I want to see the starters look

(25:45):
sharp ish. It's the first livegame rest, but I want them to
look sharp. I want them tostay healthy, and I want players in
in roster battles. I want tosee one stand out more than the others,
whether that is Matt Hawk just killingit on the punts, or you

(26:10):
look at the cornerback positions. Youwant to see, you what you ideally,
what you want to see is eitherplaying at a high level or one
separating himself from the other. Andso that is what I'm looking for in
this preseason opener. And that willwrap up this edition of the Rise Up
Serie podcast, bestar of Cardinals Talkon the Web, we talk preseason football.
We'll get this upload and so youcan listen to it before Friday's game.

(26:33):
We'll be back again next week onTuesday night, recording with Seth Cox
as we get hit their schedule.Thanks for listening. As always, thanks
for listening to the latest edition ofthe Rise Up See Red podcast. Listen
to previous episodes and subscribe to theshow on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio,
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(26:57):
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