The Cardinals have a new coach, and with Mike LaFleur have now completed their first offseason – two minicamps, a bunch of OTAs, and a revamped roster with a different offense. There will be a different starting quarterback in place for the first time since 2019.
LaFleur has made clear the offseason can provide only so much. With no pads and little contact, the work the Cardinals get this time of year can’t achieve what is achieved once the team is in the heart of training camp.
“I think there’s been a lot of good foundations set and I think they know that there’s a lot of work to be done,” LaFLeur said. “Every team leaves this (time of year) usually feeling pretty good. Usually through training camp you feel pretty good as the season gets close, and then adversity hits. Week 1, Week 5, whenever. A storm is coming. And that’s when we really find out about ourselves.”
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been things the Cardinals have learned, if for no other reason the specifics they need to figure out when they return on July 22 for camp.
The Love-Fest At Running Back And All It Brings
The Cardinals have a lot of running backs, and as LaFleur noted, all of them should be healthy in training camp after James Conner and Trey Benson had to rehab during the offseason program. What that all looks like will be fascinating. Jeremiyah Love looked exactly how you’d hope for a running back taken third overall. Sooner rather than later, he’s gonna be RB1, even though Tyler Allgeier got a lot of that work this spring. It’s too early to know if someone might be traded, but if healthy, the Cardinals can’t use everybody. The reality is, as the Cardinals saw last year in the room, health isn’t promised.