The side to Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur that is flying under the radar

TEMPE — The Arizona Cardinals’ previous coaching regime preached teaching day in and day out.

The thought was certainly there. The actual improvement and results largely were not, leading to a reset with head coach Mike LaFleur, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and other new faces coming aboard to turn the tide.

Can they make good on what the others could not?

Only time will tell if LaFleur and Co. are successful in accomplishing the mighty feat of making Arizona relevant again. Until tangible results are on paper, it’s all just talk.

But given the early impressions from this training camp and preseason, plus the knowledge both LaFleur and Hackett bring, those who have been in the fire with them have no doubt they can make more noise than people are projecting.

 

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“They make football really fun. I think they make being in the room together fun. … But they’re also super smart,” former Cardinals and CFL quarterback Chris Streveler told Arizona Sports’ Cardinals Corner. “The way that Nathaniel Hackett can teach the game of football and break it down in terms of the origins and why things are happening, he was one of the best teachers I’ve ever been around.

“I think there’s a reason why you saw the Cardinals quarterbacks having so much success in the preseason because when you hear Mike LaFleur talk, he talks about the illusion of complexity a lot with that offense, and it’s like lipstick on a pig. How many ways can we just run the same play? But it looks different to the defense.”

Keeping things jovial and fun throughout the daily grind of an NFL season is key, especially for a team trying to regain its bearings and make noise in the toughest division in football.

But at some point or another, those tough conversations and decisions are going to happen. And it’s those moments that can truly separate the good coaches from the great ones.

Do they shy away from the conversation or welcome it? Are they so surface-level that anything they do say comes off as mute and disingenuous?

There are plenty of ways head coaches can go about the downsides of football — the cuts, the injuries, the off-the-field issues, the demotions.

For LaFleur, it’s all about shooting it straight and creating the space to do so through relationship building.

That’s why he can use Kendrick Bourne as a constant example in the wide receivers room on a whim, and the pass catcher doesn’t bat an eye.

In fact, he welcomes it thanks to how LaFleur operates from their time in San Francisco. There’s a reason Bourne credits a lot of his NFL success to LaFleur.

It hasn’t taken LaFleur’s newest batch of playmakers to feel a similar type of way, either.

“He’s a great guy off the field,” rookie running back Jeremiyah Love said Thursday. “Sometimes I don’t even feel like he’s my head coach. He’s that type of guy.”

It’s how LaFleur was in each of his previous stops, where it didn’t matter whether you were a coach, player, part of media relations, or just about any other level of team employee.

And it isn’t changing any time soon.

“He keeps it real. … When you talk to him, you don’t feel like you’re talking to a football robot,” Streveler said. “You feel like you’re talking to a human being who just knows ball at a really, really deep level.

“Then you talk about where he’s been in his career, being in Kyle Shanahan’s tree, going out with Sean McVay, having his brother and everywhere that he’s gone. I feel like he’s got a ton of knowledge, and I feel like his offense has only continued to grow and evolve.”

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