ARIZONA CARDINALS

Cardinals have plenty of leaders, are looking for followers

Sep 29, 2016, 1:36 PM | Updated: 6:12 pm

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer (3) talks with Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arian...

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer (3) talks with Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians during the second half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. The Patriots won 23-21. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

TEMPE, Ariz. — Leadership is an often talked about subject in sports, with some teams struggling because they lack it and others succeeding because they have it.

The 2016 Arizona Cardinals, evidently, have plenty of leaders. Too many, it seems.

“We’ve got great leadership on our team,” head coach Bruce Arians said Monday. “I’m not sure we have a lot of followers. If you’re a leader, you’ve got to have followers, you know? We’ve got a lot of young guys, I think, who like doing their own thing. They need to follow the leaders who work real hard, do all the things it takes, because they’ve been down the road.”

During his weekly spot on Sirius/XM NFL Radio Tuesday, he went even further.

“We have some really, really good leaders, but to be a good leader the other guys have to follow you,” he said. “Now, we’ve got a lot of young guys — we’ve got some new faces — that are doing their own thing and not following the example set by these guys, and it’s a two-way street: I can only lead you to water, but you’ve got to drink it.

“And some of these young guys got to get out of old habits and get in with the Cardinal way.”

The Cardinals believed they had put together a roster with a good mix of experience and youth. Quarterback Carson Palmer is on the high end, as he is in his 14th NFL season, whereas there are a handful of rookies who make up the low end of the spectrum.

Arians did not call out anyone by name, but on Wednesday he said his definition of young players are those who are in their first and second seasons.

“Third year, now, he’s a vet,” he said.

There is freedom to draw conclusions, and over the first three games a couple of this year’s rookies — Marqui Christian and Robert Nkemdiche — made little to no impact.

Christian, a fifth-round pick, was waived on Tuesday, and though the Cardinals were hopeful he would clear waivers and land on their practice squad, he was picked up by the Los Angeles Rams. Nkemdiche, the first-round choice, has been inactive the last two games as he continues to bounce back from an ankle injury while also looking to improve his play in practice.

When asked last week if Nkemdiche, who had a reputation in college for not bringing his best effort all the time, was having an issue there, Arians said that was not at all the case.

Maybe it’s not; maybe it’s different young players who are not falling in line. Last year, tackle D.J. Humphries earned the nickname “Knee Deep” because he needed a little extra motivation, and this season running back David Johnson has made a handful of what he calls “bonehead plays,” especially in route running.

This would not be the first time Arians has had some issues with his team’s youth, as at one point in training camp he called them out for not working as hard and playing as well as they need to.

This may be a continuation of that trend.

So, when problems like this pop up, Arians turns to the team’s leaders to sort it all out, though they may not be completely aware of the issue until he turns to them.

“You always try to be cognizant of it, but at the same time, there’s so many other things going on, that you’re not made aware of it until the head coach makes a point of it and he did,” Palmer said. “We were made aware of it…I think that problem’s been handled.”

Palmer, who is a captain, said the coach did not need to pull any of the leaders aside to get his message across, because they all understood what he was talking about. Safety Tyrann Mathieu, who is also a captain, agreed.

“I think what he meant by that is we’ve got a lot of great guys in this locker room — obviously great football players, guys that do great work off the field,” safety and defensive captain Tyrann Mathieu said. “And he just wants everybody to rise to the occasion. We got guys like Pat (Peterson). At the end of the day, a lot of guys are trying too hard to make plays when they really should just settle down and do their assignment.”

Palmer, though, said it’s normal for younger players to need guidance early in their careers.

“I think we have a good group of veteran guys in each room — a handful of guys that may not have year eight, nine, 10 behind their name, but guys that have been starters since they came in,” he said. “So, it’s important. It’s important to help the young guys. You know they’re trying to take your job a lot of the time, but it’s important to show them how to prepare and how to be a pro.”

It’s worth noting that over the last few years the Cardinals have touted the number of draft picks who were team captains in college, and it is a trait they have been more than happy to add.

Yet, Arians said there is no such thing as young leaders.

“That’s a problem,” he added. “We’ve got young followers that ain’t following. We’ve got good leaders: Carson, Larry (Fitzgerald), all those guys. Do what they do. You can’t play like them, but you can prepare like them. You can take care of your body like them. You can eat like them. You can do all the things that a pro does and some of them aren’t doing that.”

Things may be turning the right direction, as Palmer said he noticed a change in Wednesday’s practice with the scout team — which is naturally filled with younger players — giving them great looks.

“So I think the message was delivered,” he said.

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Cardinals have plenty of leaders, are looking for followers