Dealing Cards: Tharold Simon thinks Seahawks punishment is ‘a little off’

TEMPE, Ariz. — The news came down on Monday morning that the Seattle Seahawks had run afoul with some NFL rules.

Because of what the league deemed to be excessive contact during some offseason practices, the organization was docked a fifth-round pick in the 2017 draft, lost three offseason practices next year and were fined $400,000 as a team. Head coach Pete Carroll was dinged for $200,000, too.

This was not the first time the Seahawks were disciplined by the NFL for this kind of violation, though when asked about his former team’s predicament, new Cardinals cornerback Tharold Simon said he thinks what’s happened to them “is a little off.”

“Since I’ve been there, we’ve been doing the same thing for the past three-and-half, four years,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “So I mean, I don’t think it was — whatever they said, too hard of a practice — that’s how they go about everything.

“It’s competition and competing, so that’s just how they go about their practice; that’s how the coaches love it. So I mean, NFL — it’s just the NFL.”

According to the league, the Seahawks violated the “no-live-contact” rule that is in place for OTAs, or Organized Team Activities. In such practices, players wear shorts but without pads. Cardinals coach Bruce Arians often refers to those workouts as being more like soccer due to the lack of contact.

According to Carroll, the incident in question involved a pair of younger players colliding while going after a ball during a drill. The players were not wearing helmets, and both were injured from the collision.

“Matter of fact, I know one play I had on one of them it was something like that, I hit a dude (on) a fumble,” Simon said. “It probably was me and him, I don’t know. But like I said, it’s all about competition over there, it’s all about competing, it’s all about going hard, being fast, being physical, flying around.

“They’ve got the money, so they can pay the little four-hundred, 200-thousand dollars; they’ve got it over there, trust me, I know. You seen the facilities and stuff over there? They’ve got it.”

Whether Simon was involved in the play in question is anyone’s guess, as that information has not been formally released. However, the idea that it was him, or at least could have been, makes sense.

Simon, like many players who take part in OTAs every year, was battling for a job, and failure to give maximum effort could lead to him being unemployed. The 25-year-old noted how players must do whatever the coaches tell them or risk being cut.

It is a difficult line to walk, and that it occasionally gets crossed is not really all that surprising. In a job where competition rules all, people are going to compete.

In Seattle, he said the only way to guarantee players take it easy is to be told practice is a walk-through and wear regular shoes. Short of that, they are going to “fly around.”

“That’s how it is over there,” he said. “If you’ve got kicks on, it’s a practice, no matter what day of the week it is.”

Injury update

The official injury report is out, and it shows the only players who did not suit up for the Cardinals on Wednesday were linebacker Kareem Martin, guard Evan Mathis and defensive lineman Frostee Rucker. Martin, who suffered a knee injury in the preseason, is getting closer to a return, whereas head coach Bruce Arians said Mathis is “day-to-day.”

Nkemdiche’s struggles are due to injury, not effort

One of the knocks on Robert Nkemdiche coming out of Ole Miss was that he wasn’t exactly known for bringing his best effort on every play. Early in his Cardinals career, it seemed as though that issue was either overblown or a thing of the past.

However, when Nkemdiche was inactive for Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay and then Arians subsequently talked about how he needed to practice better if he was going to have any chance of playing, people started to wonder what was up.

Well, turns out Nkemdiche’s struggles can be attributed to the ankle sprain he suffered just prior to training camp.

“Just a lack of practice time,” Arians said of what the first-round pick’s problem is. “He’s been hurt, he’s been limited, and he’s in a very, very competitive room. Had he been 100 percent the whole time, I’d expect that he’d have had the role we hoped for, but it’s going to be very hard for him to find that role now.”

Nkemdiche practiced in a limited capacity Wednesday, and his health will be something to monitor going forward. One thing that does not seem to be a problem is Nkemdiche’s motor.

“Oh, no,” Arians said when asked if that might contribute to the rookie’s slow start.

New OC, new Bills offense?

The Bills, the Cardinals’ upcoming opponent, made some headlines last week when head coach Rex Ryan fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman.

Though the Bills had just fallen to 0-2 on the season, they scored 31 points in their Thursday night loss to the New York Jets.

“We just made a change because we thought that it was in the best interest of our football team to make a change,” Ryan said in a conference call with Arizona media Wednesday. “I know it’s not an ideal situation or circumstances certainly, but we did it because we thought we’d be better for it, and that’s no slight on Greg Roman. Greg Roman is a tremendous coach, but for us, at this time, that was what we felt would help our football team.”

Roman had been in charge of the Bills’ offense since 2015, and whether or not the dismissal was warranted is really a matter of opinion. In terms of how the move impacts the Cardinals, however, it means the offense they are preparing to see Sunday may be one they have not seen on tape.

“We can only go by what they’ve done, so we can’t really anticipate anything else,” $ LB Deone Bucannon said. “But they’ve got a lot of talent, they’ve got a lot of speed on their whole offense, and they’re really explosive.”

Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor said the biggest change so far has to do with tempo.

“It’s definitely something we’ve been putting a focus on throughout the week,” he said. “Just trying to get in and out and put pressure on the defense. We have a lot of talented guys on the offense and we want to get them the ball. But, I think the main thing is the tempo.”

Technically there’s no proof

The bucket challenge the Cardinals’ quarterbacks (and Patrick Peterson) hold at the end of the week has become the stuff of legend because whomever loses is forced to dress up in some sort of teammate-inspired outfit as penance.

Last Friday, we learned starting QB Carson Palmer was that week’s loser, and on Sunday, we assume he had to don a Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man costume as punishment.

We say “assume” because Palmer would not confirm it was he who took the form of The Destructor.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I don’t know who that was. It looked like a masked man. It might have been (Cardinals VP of media relations) Mark Dalton. It was creepy. I didn’t see it, so I don’t know. I saw it on Mark’s Instagram.”

There was plenty of laughter at this point, and then Palmer was asked if he received a few texts about the costume.

“I got a couple,” he admitted. “But again, I don’t know what you’re talking about. So, that’s my story.”

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