Arizona Cardinals training camp: All-Access with Bruce Arians

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Head coach Bruce Arians, now in his third year with the Arizona Cardinals, meets the media each day during training camp.

Here, in this space, we’ll highlight many of the key topics and personnel conversations he has with reporters following the morning walk-through.

“Was very pleased yesterday.  Again, a lot of really good things.  First time we really played football, going up and down the field.  Thought our first offense did extremely well, scoring a touchdown.  Thought our threes were really terrible, and that we kept turning guys loose on the running back and the quarterback.  That’s really the first time the lights have come on.  When you take them out of individual drill, 7-on-7 and 9-on-9, and all of sudden you go play football and you’re going to move the football and make first downs, guys panic.  We had a few panic attacks out there.  But, overall, very pleased with where we’re at right now.  Get this one in and take a day off.”

What have you been able to see with Rodney Gunter

“He’s held his own against everybody.  He walked Mike (Iupati) back into the quarterback two days ago.  I really like where he’s at.  He’s got position flexibility.  He’s finding out how good he is.  He’s got that great one-hand punch.  He’s going to be a force.”

What have you seen between the wide receivers and defensive backs battles

“Our top guys are really going after each other and making each other better.  You know, we can’t play press in OTAs.  Now, we can play football the way we play football.  I think it’s a little bit of a disadvantage by the rules that we can’t practice the way we play in shorts.  Now, we’re getting a chance to do it.”

 Are you hoping Tyrann Mathieu sets the tone on the defense

“He’s not a vocal guy, but he plays loud.”

Are you seeing Jaron Brown making steps

“Finally.  He had taken too many steps backwards in the previous weeks until that catch.  He caught everybody’s attention with that catch, so he put a little more money back in the bank because he withdrew a bunch.  Finally nice to see him make a deposit.”

How did Drew Stanton look running the first-team offense yesterday

“I thought Drew looked outstanding.  Everybody in our organization has great confidence in him when he’s at the helm.”

What have you seen out of tight end Ifeanyi Momah

“He’s stuck his face in there pretty good, had a couple of nice blocks yesterday.  That was the thing we all wanted to see because he was one hell of a player in FIFA.  He was like the all-star FIFA player.  Now he’s a pretty good football player.”

Will you work on two-point conversions a lot in camp

“There really involved in our red zone offense, in our tight red zone.  We have a number of two-point plays that we use but all within the offense.”

What should be the goal for kicker Chandler Catanzaro in camp

“Perfect.  Perfect.  Unless he goes beyond 54, I expect it to go in because that’s what he’s capable of.”

Will you give him more chances this year over 50 yards

“Oh, there’s no doubt.  And again, it depends on what team we’re playing and who’s getting that ball if we miss it at the 50 or at the 40 because our defense—if we put them back down there (near the end zone) we’re going to get it back, usually, around the 40 and have a chance to score again.  That three points versus the next three points that we might get or seven points, flopping that field position is always very, very critical in that decision.”

Have you ever encountered a situation like Phillip Sims who has vision problems

 “No, I haven’t.  It’s a remarkable story that he can play quarterback with his vision.  I was one of those ones like, if we fix it, (expletive) he might see a lot of (expletive) that he don’t want to see.  All them guys coming after him.  Like he said, he’s used to it, so maybe we’ll fix  it later.”

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