Cardinals rookie Crowley trying to put on weight, transition into NFL

Going into the draft, Cardinals rookie center Lucas Crowley kept hearing from the critics who were saying he needed to put on more weight.

Crowley joined Doug and Wolf Tuesday on 98.7 FM, Arizona’s Sports Station, and said his playing weight in college ranged from about 280 to 290 pounds.

In comparison, the Cardinals’ starting center, A.Q. Shipley, is listed at 307 pounds.

Now at 293 pounds, Crowley doesn’t feel like his weight will or ever has held him back.

“It’s definitely not a bad thing to put on weight,” Crowley admitted. “But I’ve always done well at where I’m at and feel good at where I’m at.

“If they need me to gain weight, I can gain weight, if they want me to stay where I am, I’ll stay where I am. I’ve never had an issue playing at my weight, so I feel pretty good about it.”

In four years at North Carolina, Crowley’s size didn’t seem to be an issue.

A prospect from Florida, Crowley started 41 games, including every game during his junior and senior seasons. He was twice named a Rimington Award nominee, which is given annually to the best center in the country.

The center had a productive career in Chapel Hill, but the offense he ran in college did not quite prepare him for the NFL.

“It’s pretty simple, we ran a fast offense (at North Carolina), so all of our calls were simple make,” Crowley said. “I didn’t have to make a mike point or make a lot of calls, we didn’t make a lot of checks, we were a go, go, go and made the play call and ran with it. It was a simple offense compared to [Arizona]. I didn’t have to read a defense or know what formation we were in or anything like that.”

That means his first NFL offseason has been quite the wakeup call, with Crowley not only having to learn a new playbook, but trying to perfect foreign concepts.

“It’s been a pretty tough transition for sure as far as the mental aspect of the game goes,” Crowley said. “But physically and everything has been good.”