Cardinals LB Evan Weaver broke a dresser during the NFL Draft
Apr 28, 2020, 8:23 AM | Updated: 6:01 pm
Evan Weaver #89 of the California Golden Bears breaks up the pass to Jyaire Shorter #16 of the North Texas Mean Green on fourth down and 13 yards to go late in the fourth quarter of an NCAA football game at California Memorial Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
The Arizona Cardinals don’t need to worry about Larry Fitzgerald, Chandler Jones and Patrick Peterson getting their work in and setting an example.
But they have also put an emphasis on building an identity at the backend of their roster.
The Trent Sherfields and Dennis Gardecks of the team not only play key special teams roles but have ingrained themselves in the locker room culture. In the team’s 2020 NFL Draft class, no player stands out from that perspective more than linebacker Evan Weaver.
Arizona’s sixth-round pick out of Cal is intense.
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The Cardinals knew that about him when they met him at the Senior Bowl, and reporters got that sense when Weaver, after being drafted, nonchalantly expressed his desire to take “the soul out of people” on the field.
“He walks in that room and he’s on fire,” Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury said Saturday. “I mean, he’s ready to hit people in that room. That’s how he wakes up, that’s how he goes to sleep.”
We all got another example of Weaver’s intensity when Pac-12 Network’s Yogi Roth on Saturday asked Weaver how he handled falling to the fifth round of the draft.
The draft day pressure is real. 😅@Weavin_it is happy to be on the @AZCardinals but did some damage to his dresser after being passed in the fifth round.
Pac-12 Playlist: NFL Draft Report debuts at 7 PT / 8 MT tonight with interviews from #Pac12FB's top picks. pic.twitter.com/hKcCszq2fr
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) April 27, 2020
“There was a pick in the fifth round that — I’m not going to mention who — didn’t pick me and they were apparently supposed to,” Weaver said. “There may be a dresser than doesn’t quite work anymore. Yeah, so that’s their fault and their problem.
“It’s been emotional. Lots of ups and downs, teams that in slots I thought I’d have been picked,” he added.
Roth also dug up a fun anecdote about the new Cardinals linebacker, who could back up Jordan Hicks and pick up special teams duty along with Sherfield, Gardeck and others.
Asked by Roth when he first thought he wanted to play in the NFL, Weaver told this gem of a story:
“First grade, I told my teacher … that I didn’t need to learn how to read, and she asked me ‘Why?'” Weaver said. “I said, ‘I’m going to the NFL,’ and she said, ‘Well, how are you going to read your contract?’ I said, ‘My mom’s a lawyer.’
“Good thing, though, I learned how to read. We got past that speed-bump.”
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