All-Access with Arians: Pleased with first preseason game
Aug 11, 2014, 7:47 PM | Updated: 7:48 pm
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 walk-through:
“After looking at the tape, I was very pleased with the intensity, the effort that we played with. Really pleased with our secondary. I think we only had two penalties as far as illegal hands; one of them was actually on a blitz, on a blitz pickup (using) hands to the face. Our guys have really adapted to the rule changes very well so far. Offensively, not much to say negatively. We ran the ball effectively even with a bunch of mental errors by some young guys. Second half we had quite a few mental errors. First half was pretty efficient football.
“On the injury side, Ted Ginn (knee) and Michael Floyd (groin), really no change. We hope to get them in this ballgame (Saturday at Minnesota), but there’s a chance they might not make it back. Lyle Sendlein (calf) is definitely still out. Hope to have all three of those guys back next week for sure. The day-to-day: Max Starks with an ankle, Anthony Steen with a sore neck, Jonathan Cooper with a toe, Nate Potter with a back and Kevin Minter with a pec (pectoral issue). All of those guys are out today. We’ll just take it one day at a time with all of them.”
Given the depth at receiver, can you keep six on the final 53-man roster?
“Potentially yes. We will not cut a player at one position to keep somebody just for depth. We’re going to keep the best players on the team. There’s some great battles going on from 45 to 53. It’s fun to have this type of squad.”
How intense the competition is at receiver?
“You better not have a bad day. One bad day could cost you your job. That’s what you want. You want guys that have to come out and focus every day in practice and give everything they have every single day and then to be able to put it on tape on game day.”
How did Jonathan Cooper hold up after giving up sack to J.J. Watt?
“He shook it off; got better and better. It’s a shame he got rolled up on and got the toe (injury), but hopefully he won’t miss much time.”
Are you worried about the conditioning of John Abraham when he finally reports?
“No. He was in great shape when he showed up (in the offseason) and I would think he would come back in just as good of shape. But knocking that rust off and getting up to playing speed in a lot of the new stuff on defense that we have right now, he hasn’t been exposed to. There will be a learning curve, but hopefully he’s going to have over 20 days to be ready (for the regular season).”
