When Walter Nolen III was drafted, Jonathan Gannon said when someone watched the tape, it was clear why “this guy is a Cardinal 1000 percent.”
Through five games, the traits of the defensive lineman remain impressive to the head coach.
“Disruptiveness,” Gannon said. “Maybe besides that is how many games that he’s played. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, which is cool to see. He can take it to the grass. He understands what he needs to get done in a particular play, but just his ability to be disruptive in the run and pass game.”
What’s arguably most impressive is in the fashion he has been able to do so. Because of a pre-training camp calf injury, Nolen missed all of the preseason work and the first seven games of the season. After he made his return in Week 9 against the Cowboys, Nolen left the Week 10 and Week 12 battles early with other injuries.
Due to that, Gannon admitted that it might be tough for a player to get into a rhythm.
“It’s hard,” Gannon said. “Each week that you’re building on you can make adjustments, you can make tweaks, and you can kind of have some growth from that. Where if you’re not on the field, you kind of have to reset where you were and then it just slows down your growth process, I would say, but he’s done a good job. He really has.”
While Nolen doesn’t necessarily disagree with his coach, he described the transition of getting back on the field in a simpler fashion.
“Football is football and I just love playing it,” Nolen said. “Whenever I get the opportunity to play, I’m going to give it my all every time.”
Through five games, Nolen has two sacks, five tackles for loss, two pass deflections, and a fumble recovery which he returned for a touchdown.