GM Steve Keim accepts criticism, talks Cardinals’ D.J. Swearinger release

It’s not been an easy week for those in the Arizona Cardinals facility with the death of team owner Bill Bidwill and a winless start through four games to the year.

General manager Steve Keim has juggled his emotions with mounting pressure as his team continues shuffling its roster, searching for answers.

“I think that this is a results-based business,” Keim told Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station. “When you take these positions and certainly the position I’m in, you have to have thick skin and you got to be prepared for the criticism. Quite frankly, a lot of times it’s accurate. You don’t want to get too high on the highs when you’re executive of the year and you don’t want to get too low on the lows. You just got to stay consistent, you got to have confidence in yourself, which I do.

“The wins aren’t there right now, which is not acceptable by any means, but at the same time, I do see some good things going on and I’m certainly glad we made some of the decisions we did this offseason.”

The general manager’s latest significant move heading into Sunday’s road game against the Cincinnati Bengals was releasing veteran safety D.J. Swearinger. That came on Tuesday, giving rookies Deionte Thompson and Jalen Thompson most of the week to prepare to replace Swearinger.

While Swearinger’s coverage grades were poor, Arizona is putting itself more at risk of allowing the explosive plays that have hurt the team all too often through a 0-3-1 start.

On Thursday, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said that the Cardinals don’t designate their two safeties as free or strong, instead swapping them by matchup and determining roles depending on their opponents’ look.

One or both of them will see playing time alongside starting safety Budda Baker.

While Jalen Thompson can play safety and slot cover man, much like Baker, Deionte Thompson would provide a bigger, more traditional look.

Their progress in practices, Keim said, gave them enough to feel comfortable in releasing Swearinger.

“I think it was a combination, probably very similar to the Michael Crabtree decision,” Keim said. “When you look at a veteran player and a guy that maybe isn’t living up to expectations, and maybe at the same time, you have a couple young players you’re excited about, you want to give an opportunity. That’s the only way we’ll know about the two Thompson rookies is to find out, put them on the field and see what they can do.

“They’re going to make some mistakes, there’s no doubt about that. As long as they’re playing full speed, they’re playing with effort, they’re playing with physicality, those are the things you get excited about.”

Extra points

— Keim on the loss of Bidwill: “It’s been a tough week and certainly emotional. We lost an amazing man and certainly a guy I greatly admired. The one thing that I think sometimes when you lose somebody, I think it’s important to celebrate their life, so to speak. With him the one thing that I always sort of look back on is the special moments I got to spend with him and certainly made a difference in my life.”

— On the progress of head coach Kliff Kingsbury: “When you watch us, particularly from the 20 to 20, we’ve moved the football well. I think that his creativity has been on display. It’s no secret the little things, like we have to convert in the red zone, that’s very obvious. Defensively, we’ve given up too many big plays, explosive plays, and there are times where we haven’t stopped the run consistently.

“Defensively, we have got to get the tight end situation taken care of where we can at least minimize some of the yards that those guys are getting.”

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