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Albert Breers Five Biggest Cardinals Training Camp Takeaways: Jeremiyah Love Leads Talented Backfield GLENDALE, Ariz.
Our second stop is in the air conditioning of State Farm Stadium ..
Theres a piece of where the Cardinals go next that rests on the obvious Jeremiyah Love is slated for a big role after the Cardinals took him with the No.
3 pick in this year's draft.
| USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect Theres a piece of where the Cardinals go next that rests on the obviousbetween 2023 and 25, before Mike LaFleur and his staff arrived, GM Monti Ossenfort amassed a war chest of 29 draft picks14 in the first three roundsand their progress will be a huge key.
The good news is a bunch have made really good first impressions under LaFleurs watch.
Some of those guys, like left tackle Paris Johnson Jr.
and defensive linemen Walter Nolen and Darius Robinson, were first-rounders.
Others, like Dante Stills, Jordan Burch and Cody Simon, were drafted further down the line.This much is for surefor the Cardinals to compete in a rugged division and through a brutal schedule, its going to take a bunch of them all taking big steps together, as second-, third- and fourth-year players.
Along those lines, the competition at corner has been fierce.
Will Johnson is showing signs of becoming a No.
1 corner, while Denzel Burke and Max Melton are battling with him for playing time on the outside.Burkes got flexibility to play inside too, but the team has options there as well, with veteran Sean Murphy-Bunting moving back to the nickel spot and Garrett Williams on the mend from a torn Achilles.
Behind them, Budda Baker tweaked his training this offseason, and has looked as good as he has in years at safetythe Cardinals are going to be judicious in pushing the 30-year-old in campwith Dadrion Taylor-Demerson and Andrew Wingard giving the coaches good options alongside him.All in all, if things fall right, the secondary has promise to be the deepest, strongest area of the roster.
And running back might be second.
Yes, Jeremiyah Love has flashed his home-run ability, what he can do in the pass game, and showed a willingness to stick his nose in there in the teams first padded practice on Tuesday.But the plan is to try and not overload him as a rookie, and find the right rotation between he and veterans James Connerwhos got mileage but is the ultimate proand Tyler Allgeier, who was part of this sort of platoon with a wildly talented younger guy in Atlanta with Bijan Robinson.
Those guys should serve as the foundation for a skill group thats got a shot to be pretty good, with Trey McBride having gone even beyond what his new coaches expected , and Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr.
providing solid options outside.
The offensive line is the question mark.
Johnson taking a big step forward would help in answering it, of course, as the left tackle enters his fourth year.But nearly as important in LaFleurs offense is the role of the center, who typically shoulders a lot of the mental load, and Hjalte Froholdt has been impressive through the spring and the first week of camp in assimilating quickly to a new scheme and looking fully capable of being a high-end pivot man for the group.
Isaac Seumalos been good too at left guard, though things still need to shake out a bit of the right side, where another one of those young guys, Isaiah Adams, will be counted on.
Finally, Jacoby Brissetts made a good early impression as hes returned to action with a new contract in hand.
Brissetts now on his seventh team, headed into his 11th season.
And LaFleurs communicated to him that hes got the hard partlearning to absorb an offense and deal with what a defense throws at youdown, and now its on the coaches to make the scheme work for him.The upshot herewith Brissett getting the chance to earn the role as bridge quarterback in Arizona for a couple yearsis hes coming back with a lot of the same teammates around him from last year.
Which should give them a shot to grow together.
Albert Breer is a senior writer covering the NFL for Sports Illustrated, delivering the biggest stories and breaking news from across the league.He has been on the NFL beat since 2005 and joined SI in 2016.
Breer began his career covering the New England Patriots for the MetroWest Daily News and the Boston Herald from 2005 to 07, then covered the Dallas Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News from 2007 to 08.
He worked for The Sporting News from 2008 to 09 before returning to Massachusetts as The Boston Globes national NFL writer in 2009.From 2010 to 2016, Breer served as a national reporter for NFL Network.
In addition to his work at Sports Illustrated, Breer regularly appears on NBC Sports Boston, 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, FS1 with Colin Cowherd, The Rich Eisen Show and The Dan Patrick Show.
A 2002 graduate of Ohio State, Breer lives near Boston with his wife, a cardiac ICU nurse at Boston Childrens Hospital, and their three children.