Cardinals linebacker coach Bill Davis describes evolution of position

Bill Davis has seen it all.

He’s been coaching football since 1991 when he began his career as a graduate assistant at Michigan State. He’s coached for nine different NFL teams since then, including for the Browns, and now the Cardinals, twice.

The Cardinals hired Davis to the staff in January as a linebackers coach, as he departed Ohio State’s staff for the job.

Davis was a defensive assistant for the Cardinals during the run to the Super Bowl during the 2008-09 Super Bowl, and the defensive coordinator for the team two seasons after. Now, he’s back, and things are much different at the position he’s now in charge of.

“There’s just more little guy offenses now, with three-receiver sets and a one-back running game, so that’s the major difference that we’re dealing with right now,” Davis told the Cardinals Underground podcast.

Davis described it as a matching game.

“The more big guys they put on the field, the more big guys we have to put on the field,” he said. “The more little guys, receivers and what not, the more we have to [put on the field].”

Little guy offense means an adjustment for defenses, especially ones that feature slower-moving, mauling linebackers.

“What everyone is going to is, ‘How many three-down linebackers, how many fast linebackers can I get?'” Davis said.

“You’ve got to find these elite athletes that are in the 220-230 range that can still run. The last time I was here, we had the 245s, the 250s that could take on the bigger boys.”

It’s caused the bigger boys to lose their role a bit.

“It’s tough to carry that 250-pound, first and second down linebacker,” he said.

But Davis believes the Cardinals defense has adjusted well for that.

“It’s a 3-4, attacking, aggressive-style defense, and the personnel that we have here is perfectly suited to what we’re about to do,” he said. “And we think it maximizes the strengths of the athletes in our defense.”

Athletes are the base of the mold, and Davis believes guys like Haason Reddick and Jordan Hicks fit it well.

“This is the most athletic, fast-twitched group of inside linebackers I’ve ever been a part of, and it’s kind of what the NFL is going to,” he said.

He’s been so impressed that he believes the squad is ready to go now.

“Right now we could play the season with the defenses we have in,” he said. “The guys have a great understanding of them.

“When you think about the Arizona Cardinals defense right now, the first thing that comes to mind is aggressive.”