Cardinals WR Michael Floyd on 2014 training camp: ‘Everything comes faster’
Jul 29, 2014, 12:55 AM | Updated: 4:25 pm
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd played for two different head coaches in his first two NFL seasons.
However, the team’s 2013 leader in receiving yards heads into his third season in a familiar system, as Bruce Arians and Harold Goodwin return as head coach and offensive coordinator, respectively, for the Cardinals.
Prior to the third day of Cardinals training camp Monday, the 24-year-old Floyd talked about the second year under Arians’ system compared to the first.
“Last year, training camp was terrible,” Floyd said, chuckling, but didn’t really elaborate why. “But having a year under our belt under BA’s offense, everything comes faster. I’m really more comfortable in it now. You don’t have to really, you know, think; you can just go and play. And I can play fast and (not) have to think so much.
“So that year two really will help me out, plus, I think, also the whole offense.”
Floyd — who caught 65 passes for five touchdowns and more than 1,000 yards last year — also should benefit from having a familiar face under center this year. Carson Palmer is coming off a strong second half of the 2013 season, and Floyd said the chemistry between himself and the starting quarterback is “getting better.”
“Once you get on the same track as Carson, things kind of flow very (well),” he said about all the team’s receivers. “So that’s where we’re going now. That’s where we started off at. And we’re just getting better from here.”
The 6-foot-2 receiver also talked the optimism he has coming off a breakout campaign.
“It builds (confidence) tremendously,” he said. “And I’m glad that my quarterback has a lot of confidence in me, knowing that I can make plays on the ball and make plays for him, even though he might be in a jam at some time.”
There has also been some offseason buzz about whether the Notre Dame product has already supplanted long-time Cardinals star Larry Fitzgerald as the team’s No. 1 receiving target. Fitzgerald had almost 100 fewer receiving yards in 2013, but Floyd insisted there isn’t a defined first option or second option on the team’s offense right now.
“I just like to go out there and play,” he said. “We all work together for the same common goal, and that’s to win ball games.”
