All-Access with Arians: Cardinals are a healthy team

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Head coach Bruce Arians, now in his second year with the Arizona Cardinals, meets the media each day during training camp.

Here, in this space, we’ll highlight many of the key topics and personnel conversations he has with reporters following the morning walkthrough:

“Only person not practicing still is Lyle Sendlein (calf). Everybody else is good to go; might be a first after six or seven days of training camp to have everybody available. With that in mind, I’m going to give Darnell Dockett the day off.”

What he hopes to see out of his players in first preseason game against the Houston Texans

“Can you play smart, fast and physical? If you can do those three things, I’ll like you a lot.”

Is tight end Troy Niklas OK to play with that cast on his hand?

“He’s going to have a much smaller one starting today. He’s about 99 percent healed so we don’t want to re-injure it. He’s going to have a smaller one and he’ll have some use of some fingers.”

Why are some players are better in practice than in games, and vice versa?

“I never like that guy they call a gamer. I like to see it every day, but there are guys that just shine in games, when the lights come on. The other guys it’s normally nerves. It’s like, why are there good putters and bad putters? They can all make them on the practice green, but they get it out there (on the course) and all of a sudden just you can’t make a putt. That’s the same thing with playing. If you just get a little bit tight, you’re not going to play fast enough and you’re not going to play confidently enough to do your job.”

Have you seen a carryover in the defense from last season?

“Oh, there’s no doubt. Every day we go on the field, it’s an unbelievable challenge for this offense. First of all, (the defense) has seen us practice now for about 25 days. They recognize things very well, they know all the audibles and they’re very talented. So, when the offense wins a few matches in practice, I’m very proud that our offense is getting better. But our defense has a great swagger about it. We’ve got some good depth in the d-line rotation right now. I think there’s no doubt that there’s a ton of confidence left over from last year.”

Asked about the difficulty ahead when it comes to roster decisions

“We’re going to cut some really good players this year, and that’s a testament to (general manager) Steve (Keim) and (vice president player personnel) Terry (McDonough) and the guys that built the roster. It’s a very nice problem to have.”

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