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Cardinals notebook: The value of joint practices, Darius Robinson, Starling Thomas evaluations
Former Arizona Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis was a Chicago Bears assistant for a decade when the team held its training camp in Platteville, Wisconsin. Back in those days, multiple teams trained in the arena, creating an atmosphere akin to spring training in Major League Baseball, with inter-squad NFL scrimmages in Wisconsin and southern Minnesota.
“Those things were always packed,” McGinnis said. “They had a trailer with a big calliope organ on it, and the trailer would just pull that thing all over the fields, playing ‘Bear Down, Chicago Bears.‘”
McGinnis doesn’t expect anything like that atmosphere to return, but he does foresee more joint practices in the NFL’s future.
“We’ve already lost one preseason game and eventually, you’re only gonna have two preseason games when the league goes to 18 [regular season] games,” said McGinnis, now the Tennessee Titans’ radio analyst. “These joint practices are going to be valuable to coaches.”
The movement is already under way. The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders are the only teams not taking part in joint practices this year.
NFL teams are allowed to hold joint practices for up to four days during training camp, and those can be divided multiple ways. More than two-thirds of the meetings this year are single days, with the Los Angeles Rams holding four separate one-day sessions against three different teams.
Last year, the Cardinals spent a week in Minnesota and practiced against the Vikings before the teams’ preseason finale. In 2016, they practiced against the Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium while the team was still in San Diego. This week, they will hold joint practices with the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday and Thursday in Westfield, Indiana — ahead of their preseason game against the Colts on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Coach Jonathan Gannon said he is looking for “a little uptick” in the Cardinals’ play after their preseason opener against the Saints on Saturday.
“I liked where our mode of play was in the game, but the things that we need to get better and uptick [are] technique against different people, and I would say execution of just schematic things within each group,” he said.
Two things Gannon does not want to see are injuries and fights. He can’t do much to prevent the former, but he has warned his players against the latter. Then again, so did the NFL, which sent out a memo recently reminding everyone that fights and unprofessional conduct at joint practices wouldn’t be tolerated.
The first week of NFL joint practices still witnessed the New York Giants and Detroit Lions getting fined $200,000 apiece for multiple fights over two days. And Falcons wide receiver Rondale Moore (a former Cardinal) was carted off the field with a leg injury on the second day of practice against the Miami Dolphins.
“It is a highly competitive environment where it is a little safer than a preseason game,” Gannon said back in March. “There is a teeter-totter between development and safety. If you’re too worried about development, you’re going to get a bunch of guys hurt. If you are too worried about safety you’re going to have no development. You have to find that sweet spot.”
The Cardinals will try to find that sweet spot. Multiple NFL players and coaches are on record saying that the second day of joint practices isn’t a good idea because things tend to get chippier.
“There’s positives and negatives however you set it up,” Gannon said. “The number one thing for me is, as it relates to our team, what do we need to do to get them ready for Buffalo and keep them healthy, evaluate them and develop them — all 90 guys?
“If you do joint practice versus two teams two days, or two teams one day, or one team two days, there’s pros and cons to doing that. There’s pros and cons to not doing joint with anybody. Talk to the coordinators. They’ll tell you the pros to that, but I feel really good about how we set it up.”
(USA TODAY Network)
Darius Robinson’s Cardinals debut
Darius Robinson received a considerable amount of hype for the 10 snaps he played on Saturday against the Saints.That fact is indicative of the over-analysis and over-hype that permeates the NFL, but it is also indicative of just how well Robinson played in those 10 snaps against the Saints starters, even if it was a preseason game where players aren’t necessarily fully dialed in.
Robinson made the first tackle of the game when he pulled down Saints running back Alvin Kamara, and he was a disruptive force for the Saints passing game.
That said, and to nobody’s surprise, the Cardinals coaching staff had a more nuanced evaluation of his performance.
“He’s tough to block if he does the right things,” Gannon said. “[He needs to] play blocks the right way, a little more consistently, execute his rush plan both individually and collectively, and consistently keep his motor and violence high.”
Robinson admitted to being nervous in his first NFL game, especially when he realized he’d be going against the starters. But once his snaps were finished, he kept replaying them to learn.
Robinson came away with his own evaluation of his performance, offering pros and cons.
“I liked my confidence. I liked my hand placement and just playing physical,” he said. “What I didn’t like was I got a little too happy. One of them, I kind of converted to pass a little bit too fast, and then also knowing what they give me, kind of cheating my alignment a little bit, or showing them a different look so I can play a little bit faster.
“Those are all good things that I can fix. Walking away from that game, there was nothing that I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t think I’m ready for that.’ It was more like, ‘Oh yeah. If I just fix this and fix this I can keep making more steps’ so I’m super excited to go to Indiana this week.”
Starling Thomas still flying under radar
The Cardinals made a lot of moves this offseason to shore up the cornerback position. The signed free agent Sean Murphy-Bunting. They drafted Max Melton and Elijah Jones, and Garrett Williams has proven himself a versatile option.
None of that fazes undrafted, second-year corner Starling Thomas V. He nearly had an interception against the Saints and he continues to show well in his opportunities.
“I kind of embraced that role of being an underdog; a guy that’s not talked about a lot,” he said. “They brought competition into the room and I feel like that has elevated my play. I was undrafted so I’m used to not being talked about. I’m used to being an underdog, and I just want to continue to prove why I belong, and continue to show up on Sundays.”
Like Robinson, Thomas saw room for improvement.
“Whenever the ball came my way, I feel like I made plays on the ball,” he said. “There’s still some minor things I got to clean up technique-wise at the top of the route… playing the ball top down and just being comfortable in myself whenever I’m in my back pedal.”
Extra point
Gannon reiterated that the Cardinals emerged from their preseason opener without any injuries.
“We’re actually getting healthy as we go to the Midwest,” he said.
Top photo of the Colts Kwity Payne pursuing Kyle Murray via Getty Images
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