Cardinals’ Michael Crabtree, Haason Reddick pushing to play Week 1

TEMPE, Ariz. — As the Arizona Cardinals work through the end of the week to determine what the backend of their roster looks like come their season opener against the Detroit Lions, two of their key players have work left just to be active for that game.

Newly-signed receiver Michael Crabtree and rehabbing linebacker Haason Reddick project as starters, but each has their own set of obstacles.

For Crabtree, it’s about getting into football shape after signing last week and then learning the playbook. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury, a Texas Tech product himself, said he wants the 31-year-old receiver to be playing and executing the offense at a high level before he sees the field.

“That’s what I’m here for, to play,” Crabtree said Monday. “I’m going to work hard to that point.

“Everybody think I’m familiar with (the offense) — it’s pretty much the same as Texas Tech, Mike Leach, but it’s still (a) Kliff Kingsbury offense. It’s going to take me a little time to get that, too. We’re day-to-day with it.”

That said, the familiarity helps.

A sarcastic Kingsbury said that the Texas Tech connection — Crabtree and Kingbury each played under former head coach Mike Leach there — helps “because that’s one of the higher institutions in the country,” but the Cardinals’ brand is fitted to the NFL game and evolved to Kingsbury’s ideologies.

There’s also the fact that Crabtree last played in the Air Raid offense more than a decade ago. At Texas Tech, his position coach was Lincoln Riley, who the past two seasons was Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray’s head coach at Oklahoma.

As for the challenge facing Reddick, who required surgery on the meniscus in his knee at the start of training camp, the challenge is all physical. From the sounds of it, the training staff has been cautious with him, doling out workout routines each day without the linebacker asking questions.

But the timeline of the recovery and how Reddick’s knee feels still point to a return somewhere around Week 1.

“Just a matter of whatever the trainers and the doctors think,” Reddick said, adding that if it’s not by Week 1, it’ll still be “very soon. I think it’ll be really, really soon.”

If Reddick can’t play Week 1, the question of whether the inside linebacker tandem will feature Dennis Gardeck or Joe Walker alongside Jordan Hicks only got more muddled with Walker playing well as a starter Thursday in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Gardeck had started the first two preseason games with mixed results.

“They can solve problems together really well,” Kingsbury said of Walker and Hicks. “That’s encouraging to see.”

Crab mum on free agency twists

Crabtree’s free agency played out in odd fashion over the summer.

After an early August workout in Arizona with two other receivers, NBC Sports’ Mike Florio reported a deal was done. Turns out, it wasn’t.

Arizona offered a contract to Crabtree, according to 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s John Gambadoro, but he did not accept. It took two more weeks for the two parties to agree on a deal.

Crabtree didn’t want to discuss the particulars of his free agency process on Monday and said he wasn’t anxious to get a deal done.

“I was really just at home enjoying my family, working out at the same time,” he said. “If they needed me and wanted me, they had my number.”

Crabtree also didn’t want to address the divisional matchups with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, teams that respectively feature cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Richard Sherman. Each got into widely-publicized spats with Crabtree at different points in his career.

“Each team is a team. I’m not looking at the jersey number,” Crabtree said.

And for what it’s worth, Sherman took the same road earlier in the week.

“I haven’t seen that man in six years — five, six years,” Sherman said Thursday, according to The Athletic. “I don’t have any feeling either way towards him. When I see him, you know, there’s going to be a competition. I’m going to look to win. Otherwise, I don’t really give a damn.”

EXTRA POINTS

— Kingsbury confirmed that he will sit the starters for Thursday’s preseason finale at Denver, with the exception of any emergencies. That could lend evidence as to who might have locked down jobs at positions such as, say, tight end and receiver.

— Backup quarterback Brett Hundley will start Thursday’s game.

— Crabtree on reuniting with receivers guru and offensive assistant Jerry Sullivan, who coached him in 2009 during his rookie year with the 49ers: “Technician. Those moves he taught me and the technique he taught me I still use to this day. That guy is legendary.”

— With Hundley drawing two false start penalties against the Vikings, Kingsbury reiterated Monday that he does not “expect it to be a problem for us moving forward.” The coach’s in-the-moment reaction to the first such penalty on Saturday would say otherwise.

— Kingsbury on the decision to table rookie receiver Hakeem Butler’s season with an IR stint, which will keep him out of practices even once he is healthy: “We want to be able to develop him. It’s unfortunate he won’t be able to practice with us, but we see a lot of talent there and wanted to be able to get that done.”

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