Arizona Cardinals training camp: Carson Chats

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Quarterback Carson Palmer, now in his third year with the Arizona Cardinals, meets the media several times 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:

What are your thoughts on the first preseason game against Kansas City coming up

“Just excited.  I get excited about practice.  I enjoy the challenge of practice, and the first preseason game is typically pretty vanilla as far as the looks you see and the challenges that are presented.  But, I get excited for practice, for games—one series isn’t a ton to get excited about, but the thing that excites me is just to debut our team in front of our fans and to open up our season at home in front of our fans that are obviously extremely excited and the attendance that we’ve had out here every day at camp.  That’s the most exciting part.  You want to make the most of every play because you know you’re getting one series.  You’d like to kind of just take your time and methodically move the ball down the field and get a 10-12 play drive under your belt.  That doesn’t always happen, but I think as an offense—and really as a team—we’re just excited to not hit each other anymore and get in front of our fans.”

Does the fact that you haven’t played in so long figure in how much you’re looking forward to the preseason

“To be honest, it doesn’t factor into it a ton.  I played in a lot of preseason games, so that’s not as much.  I’m just excited to play, not because I haven’t played since Nov. 7.”

Do your teammates think you’re crazy when you tell them you like practice

“Yeah, they do.  Practices for quarterbacks is awesome.  You don’t get hit.  You’re wearing pads—you don’t need them, I’ve said that before.  Just the challenge.  We see so many different looks from our defense and so many different things that come up that you don’t prepare for.  Typically going into a game, you kind of have an idea of what you’re going to see and the different fronts you’re going to see and the different personnel groups they’re going to put on the field.  It’s such a challenge every day at practice because we get so many different looks, multiple personnel groups, different pressures, different sides of the field; and then you’ve got—there’s some play-makers over on that side of the ball so you have a great challenge every day in practice.  I enjoy that, I enjoy the challenge.”

Is the complexity of what you’re facing any different than what you faced under Todd Bowles

“Not really.  There’s a lot of new stuff.  I mean, this is the time we’re tinkering with stuff, offensively and defensively.  There’s things we’ll see in practice one day and won’t see again for camp, and they won’t run at all during the season because they didn’t like it.  There’s a couple of things, I’m sure, that every coordinator hides and saves for that Week 1 game. But for the most part it’s pretty similar defensively what we’ve been doing.  The most consistent thing is just the challenge.  It’s a different challenge every day.  There’s a different call we have to make in our protections that you’re not quite prepared for until you’re walking up to the line of scrimmage.”

You’ve talked in the past about getting that first hit out of the way, do you still feel that way given everything that you’ve been through

“Yeah, I just like to get knocked around a little bit to get your body prepared to being sore and then coming back, having a day off, taking care of your body on Sunday and then (a) full-padded practice Monday; two-and-a-half hour grind Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday again.  I’m looking forward to that and just, like I said, getting in front of our fans.”

How much does it affect the offense not having the top two running backs on the field

“It’s part of the game. I really haven’t thought much about it.  I know those two guys have been thinking about, but other than that, as an offense, we’re focusing on the guys that are in there.  It would be a luxury to have those guys and kind of tinker with some stuff that we can do with both of those guys out of the backfield, but we’re focused on ourselves right now.  It’s a very selfish time of year, and at the end of the day you got to focus on the team and can’t really worry about who might be out there next week or who’s not out there.  Just really focus on us.”

Do you sweat much throwing interceptions in practice

“There’s different coverages that come up that you want to see.  Is this feasible to try to get this ball in there?  Do I need to take my check-down?  There’s certain guys you give opportunities, let’s see what happens when you give him a chance to go up and make a play on one of those 50-50 balls.  So, some of it is trying to figure out am I being greedy or can I really take this shot and can this guy go up and make this play for me when he needs him to?  That’s why we’re here right now.”

The long pass play to John Brown yesterday, how much further could you throw the ball if you had to

“I was just glad I could see myself do that at the end of practice after you’ve thrown 90-plus balls.  When you get those opportunities you got to make them.  It felt good to see Smokey get underneath that ball.  I saw him going and I wanted to see what gear he could get to.  The guy is limitless.  He may be short, but he can run with long-striders and he can outrun guys.  It’s just good to see him go get that ball.”

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