All-Access with Bruce Arians: Young guys are ‘loafing’

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Head coach Bruce Arians, now in his fourth 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.

“Injury wise, Ed Stinson (calf) is back full, Taylor Boggs has a calf strain, so those are the only two switch-outs today. Everybody else is about the same as I mentioned yesterday. I thought yesterday defensively we started a very fast practice, very slow offensively and then it flipped about halfway through and the offense kind of took over the practice and the defense slid down a little bit. Still pleased with where we’re at as a football team. I do not like where some young guys’ heads are as far as the speed of the game for the allotted time practice is. They won’t make our ball club at that level that they’re going at so we’ve had some conversations and we’ll see how they pick it up today.”

 Are the young guys intimidated?

“No, they’re loafing, especially in special teams where they’re going to make the team. You turn that tape on and they ain’t going fast enough to make this team.”

Do you think the young guys got your message?

“Yeah, you’ll either be flipping burgers and bagging groceries or you might be here, that’s your choice in about three weeks because if you practice like you did you ain’t getting in the game Friday night.”

How comfortable would you be with Brandon Williams having a major role defensively?

“I’m very comfortable. He’s starting. There ain’t nobody else out there challenging him right now.”

 What have you seen from Xavier Williams?

“’X’ has had a great camp. Really strong. He’s really improved his pass rush. He’s playing a real high level right now to fit into the rotation heavily.”

Has Chris Hubert been a pleasant surprise?

 “Very, very pleasant. He’s made plays every day. I would like to see him make them against Patrick (Peterson) and Brandon, but the guys he’s going against, he’s coming out on top every day. Every day he’s got a long touchdown catch.”

How do you work on end-of-halves and end-of-game scenarios in practice?

“Just keep putting them in scenarios. We’ve had eight-to-10 two-minute end-of-half scenarios already. We’ll have an end of the game red zone scenario today: 19 seconds left, no timeouts and the ball is on the 20-yard line. Same thing, go back with 19 seconds at the 40 and you need a field goal to win. So, you’re putting guys in positions to learn and things will come up during it, so we have mock situations every day.”

What’s your view of social media and have you shared it with the team?

“I don’t give a crap. That’s their business, and it doesn’t affect us one way or another as a team.”

A week into camp, how do you compare where they’re at as opposed to last season?

“I think this one has shown a little more character. Last season we really struggled days after days off to have any kind of a decent practice. I think they learned that lesson. We preached on it in the spring, and this team has a much better come-to-work business attitude every single day. It has been all of OTAs and every time we’ve stepped on the football field it’s this year’s football team and that’s really all you an ask of them.”

What are you looking for in the red/white practice on Saturday?

“The only difference in the practice will be is we’ll have a full-speed goal line tackling scrimmage. We had a full-speed tackling two-point session yesterday where we’re actually cutting each other and playing real football. That’s really the only difference in the practice schedule. But there is more excitement to it. It’s always nice to have the number of fans we’ll have, and it’s always a real good barometer to see where we’re at and knock on wood, everybody walks off the field.”

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