All-Access with Bruce Arians: Happy for Palmer and Fitzgerald

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.

“Really no news, no change injury wise. Nobody on or off from yesterday. Looking forward to this afternoon. We’ll have the live goal line and we’ll also have a live move-the-ball period. Should be an exciting practice.”

Is John Brown making any progress

“John is making progress. He’s been seeing Dr. (Javier) Cardenas and I’ve got really good reports.”

What were your thoughts on Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald signing one-year contract extensions

“I’m really happy for them. I thought it was a great move by the organization and happy for them. It’s always good to have your leaders and knowing where they’re at.”

What does the extra year for Palmer mean for when the team evaluates quarterbacks for the future

“Nothing. It depends who the hell is out there. Who is it? If he’s there, we’ll take him. If he ain’t there, we don’t need him. I’ve always thought the window (for Palmer) was three or four years. He can play as long as he wants.”

Did you notice the young guys stepping up their effort in practice after they got talked to

“Really different, really different. A couple of young guys were flying around yesterday like they might want to make this team. They thought about flipping burgers and bagging groceries and (expletive) they’d have to give change and they can’t count.”

When players are in a contract year do you notice how their approach changes

“Oh yeah. All of a sudden they lose three-of-four percent body fat and play their ass off.”

Do you see anything change in Michael Floyd

“Not really. Mike’s been spot-on for the last two years as far as conditioning and then playing hard. But, there’s a difference in them when they’re playing for a contract.”

You’ve talked about the defensive line depth, specifically what are you seeing in your second and third units

“When you’re sticking Josh Mauro and Xavier (Williams) and Red (Bryant) out there, that’s a starting bunch for a lot of people. That’s our third line right now. Olson Pierre has really come on, having a heck of a camp, being explosive. There’s nine or 10 deep over there that when you think about adding Robert (Nkemdiche) and Frostee (Rucker) in there, it’s crazy.”

Have you always been of the thought process with the defensive line that rotating players is the best thing or did you have to come to that conclusion

“No, fresh players, that’s always been the best. We’ve always since I can ever remember tried to rotate defensive linemen. You don’t want anybody out there playing tired. As soon as you’re playing tired you’re going to give up a big play.”

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