The Arizona Cardinals were scheduled to have a mandatory minicamp for three days this week, but head coach Jonathan Gannon, obviously pleased with the work done since the offseason program began in mid-April, opted to have only one practice, which was Tuesday (June 11).
Talking to the media afterward, Gannon said of practice, “This will be our last one. We’re gonna do a little something not on the practice field tomorrow. So this was our last practice of the offseason. Feel really good where we’re at; got a long way to go. But the attention to detail, the attitude, the effort is there. And they’re ready to go. They’ll take a little break, but they know it’s really not a break in pro football these next five-and-a-half weeks and then we’ll get back on July 23rd and we’ll let it rip.”
Gannon said what has stood out about the entire roster is “they care, they’re team-first people, they care about their teammates. They compete and we got smarter; I feel like we got smarter, so everyone’s excited this time of year, but they’re excited and ready to go to camp.”
Asked where he saw the most improvement, he said, “I’m always gonna say that reps are gold. So when guys go in and they make a mistake, are they repeat offenders or do they clean it up? And I thought that we have enough self-awareness to know the mistakes that we gotta clean up and then the consistency to solve the issue and fix the problem (and) not let it happen again.
“So it’s football. We understand that it’s not gonna be perfect. It never will be, but I felt like we took a jump with technique, with assignments, with getting in and out of the huddle, with execution as much as we can now without pads on. So that puts another variable into it come training camp, which is fun. But I felt like they made a jump there.”
Finally, Gannon had a message for the media, which was a carbon copy of what he will tell the players before they depart, when he said, “You guys have a good summer, be safe. Don’t do dumb is the deal and I’ll see you in July.”
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