Cardinals Culture Shift Rests Within the Details
GLENDALE -- We're in the second week of training camp, and nearly 45 minutes out from speaking with offensive coordinator Drew Petzing here at State Farm Stadium.
As of Tuesday, the Arizona Cardinals can begin practicing in pads and thumping each other ahead of their first preseason game, which will take place next week.
It's been a long offseason for the Cardinals, who have undergone a complete makeover from top to bottom in terms of a front office, coaching staff and roster.
It's a new era of Cardinals football - take it from quarterback Kyler Murray himself.
"With the things that coach [Jonathan] Gannon and Monti [Ossenfort] have put in place: Structure. From top to bottom it's a lot more detail-oriented, attention to detail and allows me - the guy that I am - it doesn't come off as how it may have came off in the past. 'Well, he's screaming at coaches' or whatever, it's not any of that," said Murray.
"Everybody's just trying to win. We're all trying to be on the same page. If you mess up this little detail, OK, we'll hold you accountable for it. If you miss a block, you miss a throw, you blitz in the wrong gap, everyone understands what that guy was supposed to do. We're all on the same page. It's been preached to everyone, not just one person.
"I think the communication throughout this whole thing has been great. It's been awesome. Everybody knows what we're all supposed to be doing and everybody's on the same page."
Coach Gannon has been praised for his ability to rally his new set of troops in the short amount of time he's been at the helm here in the desert. Even from an outside perspective, the shift has been quite drastic from the previous regime featuring Kliff Kingsbury and Steve Keim.
"I think a lot of it just comes down to the accountability, the communication. Not only that, he [Gannon] knows football. He knows football, he coaches it. Guys that already know football will get even smarter. The guys that may not be on the same level with some guys that have played a lot of years ... everyone's getting smarter," said Murray.
"He's teaching football. He's teaching the scheme and if you don't understand it - we're in a meeting and he calls you out and you don't get it, we just know you don't know it. At this point, we don't need you to know right now, the season's not here yet. But, when the season comes and we're on the field, you got to know it.
"So I just think he's a real genuine guy, relates to everybody. As far as what he's doing right now, I love what he's doing."
Previously, offensive tackle D.J. Humphries suggested the Cardinals have undergone a complete culture shock.
Murray says not only the offense - but the entire team in general - is far different.
"I don't think it's necessarily the scheme, I just think it's how it's being coached. You know, Coach Riley didn't run this offense, but he coached the sh-- out of it. He coached it very well to where everybody understood what they were supposed to be doing," Murray said.
"If they're doing this, we're doing this. If we get this look, we're going here. It's just the details of everything. Every little detail matters. I think that's something that we might have - I know we were missing. So okay, cool. We're under center now. We got a new coach, a new system. It can be executed the same way.
"I just think it's the way he's coaching it. The details of it. Drew's done a great job. We're all in the same room, hearing it from one mouth, it's just a lot of different. A lot different."
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