Arizona Cardinals training camp: QB Carson Palmer chats – July 26, 2014
Jul 26, 2014, 9:01 PM | Updated: Jul 27, 2014, 2:51 am
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Quarterback Carson Palmer, now in his second year with the Arizona Cardinals, meets the media several times during the 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:
On how the talent he’s surrounded by compares to previous teams he’s been on:
“I think this is by far the most talented team I’ve ever been on, top to bottom. You look at us from our returners, our specialists, our offense, our defense, we’re a very, very talented group; very fortunate to be as talented as we are.”
On how that talent might equate to a better offense:
“As you come into play us, you need to worry about guys like Ted (Ginn Jr.) and John Brown and big Mike (Floyd) running by you. That’s what opens up the run game. That’s what opens up the short and the quick passing game, getting the ball out, making it difficult on defensive line’s pass rush. But we expect to be extremely explosive and we picked up our explosive plays, our plus-22 yard gain plays and our plus-12 yard run plays, as the season went on and we need to continue to improve in that category.”
On going into his second year with the Cardinals:
“It’s awesome. It’s been awhile since it’s been so stable around me. It’s been five years, six years so it’s exciting. It’s fun. It’s nice to just focus on you and focus on your improvements and then as that happens; you focus on the other guys around you. But just being able to come into camp, prepare, knowing how stable everything is — it’s not up and down, it’s not going to possible change drastically right before camp like it has before for me. Just being a very stable, even-keel mood and flow coming through July and out of OTAs and now that camp is here, I feel just different than I’ve ever felt.
And how does that translate out onto the field:
“Well, it lets you play with a certain level of confidence, but also just lets you play with some comfort and just knowing it’s not experimental this year like there were some things last year as you put in a new system and you’re trying to find what guys do well, what guys don’t do well, what guys can do this, what guys can’t do certain things. We have a very good feel for that and the coaching staff has a very good feel for that. So it’s just a certain comfort level, a certain ease of just making sure I’ve got my stuff down, making sure I’m bringing along anybody that needs it and making sure that I prepare and I execute the way I expect myself to execute.”
