It barely registered when Hjalte Froholdt was signed by the Arizona Cardinals to a two-year contract in the 2023 offseason.
In five prior NFL seasons, he’d played 31 games in New England and Cleveland with six starts because of injury with the Browns in 2022.
However, Froholdt started all 17 games at center last season and was rewarded with a two-year contract extension through 2026 on Wednesday.
“He just needed to play,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said Wednesday. “He was all in. Maximize himself, team guy, very intelligent, very strong and had the skillset to play a couple different positions. We just decided to put him at center and he took it and ran with it.”
Why center?
Gannon said, “Part of it is skillset and his brain. He kinda runs the whole show in there. He’s played all the spots inside, but for us it made sense to put him at center and go.”
He concluded, “He’s exactly what you want in a Cardinal. I’m glad to see (general manager) Monti (Ossenfort) and his people and himself got that done. Excited for him. He deserves every penny.”
After practice Wednesday, Froholdt said, “I really like what we’ve got going on here. I enjoy the coaching staff, I love the weight room, I love the way we run things. I love my teammates, love the environment. So I’m stoked to be able to dig in some more roots here and really focus on what I need to do and not worry about the extracurricular stuff.
“Now, I can just worry about football. That’s all that really matters. I signed it this morning, but gotta go out there and practice. Stoked about it and it’s definitely an ease on the mind to think I can just go out and play balls to the wall.”
Teammates congratulated him when he was on the field, to which he said, “It was awesome. It was very genuine, it seemed like. It was good. I don’t like all the attention, so I tried to tell them, ‘Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill.’ But, no, it was cool.”
Gannon acknowledged some surprise last season regarding “how comfortable he was running the show from the center position. (But that was) just me. I don’t think it surprised (offensive coordinator) Drew (Petzing) or Iz (quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork); those guys that were with him in Cleveland, but I thought that he really jumped into that role and did it really well quickly.”
Mostly, Gannon loves what Froholdt does consistently.
He said, “Hjalte’s been all in on maximizing himself as a player and he’s been all in with how I want our guys to operate on a day-to-day basis. Team first and displaying winning behavior. Hegood job and it’s cool to reward guys for that.
“He’s played well for us, he’ll continue to play well and honestly, he hasn’t hit his ceiling yet. I’m looking forward to what he does this year and moving on forward.”
Emphasizing the overall importance of a center, the head coach said, “The communication right from when we break the huddle starts with him. The identification of a lot of things starts with him. Him and the quarterback being on the same page of what they’re seeing, what the quarterback sees, what he sees, and that’s happening pretty fast (clicks fingers). Times ticking to get the ball snapped.”
Froholdt was able to reflect on the path he’s taken since being a fourth-round pick by the Patriots in 2019. He spent his rookie season on injured reserve and played eight games in New England in 2020 (61 offensive snaps), then six with the Browns and no offensive snaps in 2021 before getting those six starts in 2022.
“There’s been some bumps in the road,” he said. “It’s definitely gone quick the past couple years and getting some playing time, but definitely a milestone for my own personal self. At the same time, it’s just really nice to be able to relax in the sport and relax in your position and relax and do whatever I need to do now to be a better player. What do I need to do to service the team? What do I need to do to give us wins?”
That compared to, he admitted, “of sometimes you try to survive in this league and you do everything you can for yourself, of course for the team, but there’s definitely a little bit of, ‘I just need to make this roster; how can I make it?’
“So I’ve been in that situation multiple times; sometimes I didn’t make it, so definitely at this point, it’s definitely freeing to sit back and think, ‘OK, now I can truly just only focus, not think about anything else but football and only think about being better. Not like, ‘Oh, what if and what has happened.’ So it’s definitely a good feeling.”
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