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Cardinals training camp update: July 24 with Howard Balzer
An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's Extra Help Program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nico has always been a leader, ahead of the curve, but his growth wasn't keeping up. So as pediatrician recommended, Pediasure Nutrition Chakes to help him grow and support his immune system. And he says they are de lisioso. Shop for Pediasure at pediasure.com. This is Howard Ballzer and welcome to this Cardinals camp update for the Rise Up Sea Red Podcast, the best hour of Cardinals Talk on the web. Well, we have day one in the books for the Cardinals in training camp on this Wednesday, July 24th. And it was a low day. That's what Jonathan Ganon does with training camp and practices. He splits them up into low days and high days and some in between. And it only made sense that this first day would be a low day because you're not in pads. No one's done anything in terms of on the field since the one mini camp practice on June 11th. But yet there was a very good tempo in practice. In fact, James Conner said that, hey, we went hard today and today was day one. And so that's a good sign. We could see it in watching and watching it. The players had high tempo. There was a lot of good work. The practice only lasted about an hour and 10 and an hour and 15 minutes, which makes sense for the first day. Remember, this is the acclimation period that all teams in the NFL experience for the first three or four days of training camp before the pads get put on. But it was a good start. And one of the things that started it off was Buddha Baker off the cuff, according to head coach Jonathan Ganon, speaking to the team on Tuesday night, after all the players reported and Ganon spoke and owner Michael Bidwell spoke and some others. And then as Ganon said, off the cuff, Buddha Baker decided to talk to the team. And it's kind of like that old line, old line about EF Hutton. When EF Hutton talks, people listen. Well, that's what happened when Buddha talked. In fact, James Conner used those same words. He said, he's a guy that's done it right year after year after year. And when he talks, guys listen. He's been a captain every year for a reason. He's our tone setter for sure. And Ganon always waxes ecstatic about Buddha Baker. What a phenomenal person he is and a phenomenal player. Ganon asked about the talk when he spoke to the media before practice, said, I'm glad three is with us. And he's going to play a big part in what we do this year. He even pointed out how big how how Buddha sometimes in terms of practice and playing the right way, but said you should hear him in meetings. He asks a ton of questions when he probably knows the answers, but he's asking because his buddy doesn't want to ask the question. So that's a good example of Buddha Baker and the energy and leadership he brings to this team. Of course, we all have questions. Will Buddha Baker be here in 2025? This is the final year of his contract. And so Jonathan Ganon was asked if he ever thinks about or what he feels about the possibility that Buddha Baker might not be with this team after this season. And all Ganon would say was I don't get into feelings in the future. So that was a way to begin camp and I'll say this one thing. We spoke to a lot of players during the period between the final mini camp practice and the start of training camp. Maybe not a lot, but it was about two a week except for the week of July 4th. And there was always two players a week. Some weeks there was only one when Drew Petzing, the offensive coordinator, Nick Rallis, the defensive coordinator spoke to us. But two a man, two a man, the players talked about being excited for training camp. Now I've covered a lot of camps in my career. I hate to say what that number is. It's in the 40s. But I can't remember hearing players talk before camp about how they can't wait to get there. And James Conner said the same thing when he talked to us on Wednesday, saying how excited he is and just, hey, this is the time for work. This is what we do. This is our jobs and we want to hopefully win games. And that's the attitude and the vibe that is around this team now. Of course, Conner also said, hey, he admitted it. Talk is cheap. Doesn't matter what we say. It all depends on how we play and what happens when the season begins. But this team definitely looks like a team that at least we can say is ascending and should be better. The other thing about Ganon, everyone talks about culture. He has a certain way of talking. He has a certain language. And all of a sudden we're getting to the point where all the players repeat the same things that he says. And when Ganon's asked about this or that, whatever it might be, he often says, let's keep the main thing, the main thing. Well, guess what? James Conner said that today. Let's keep the main thing, the main thing. When Paris Johnson talked to us recently, he said, hey, we have to keep the main thing, the main thing. So obviously, the way Jonathan Ganon goes about things has been picked up by this team. And the players are buying in and that is often the most important thing. I covered Dick Vermeil when he was the coach of the Rams. And he would often say in terms of players, you know, what do you have to do to get through to them? What do you have to do to get this culture? What do you have to do? And he would always say, you have to be believed to be heard. And it certainly appears that the Cardinals players are believing Jonathan Ganon's message and it is being heard. Let's talk about competition. That's been talked about a lot, how this roster has been built with depth. Yes, there's questions at positions, no question about it. How's the corner backroom? Corner backroom, I should make sure that everyone heard what I said. How that plays out. How will the rotation be on the defensive line? Who will be the left guard next to Paris Johnson's junior on the left side of the line? There's a lot of competition on this team. And Ganon has talked about that. He says, that's what you want. You want competition. And one comment he made to us on Wednesday was, it's a feather in Monte's cap. Obviously talking about general manager, Monte Ashen Fort. It's a feather in his cap that you can't pencil in 53 guys right now. And everybody does that. They're going, oh, who's going to make the team? Who's going to be this? Who's going to be that? But it's not easy choices. Now, granted, we can name a lot of those guys, a lot of that 53. But as he said, you can't do that right now. You can't pencil in 53 guys. And that's a good thing because there's a lot of spots open. And whenever he was asked about certain players or certain competition, he would say everywhere, everywhere. Go down the list. There's competition everywhere. And that's what you want in your football team. Some items of note, Jonathan Gaines the second. Always like to put in these guys who like to be called the second or junior or whatever it might be. Jonathan Gaines the second was participating in practice. He, of course, toured his ACL against the Vikings last year in the final pre-season game and was on injury reserve and missed the entire season. But a lot of work was done. He did a lot of work. The trainers did a lot of work. The sports performance staff did a lot of work to try to keep him from having to go on physically unable to perform to start training camp. And they did that. He'll be somewhat limited. That's the plan as camp starts, but he was participating. He was out there. He was running from drill to drill. And that's a good thing. One thing that jumped out was we saw this begin a few years ago with the Guardian helmets. Those kind of ugly looking white things that the players wear and practice to guard against concussions. A few years ago, it was only the guys on the line. Then they extended it to tight ends. Well, this year in the first practice of training camp, except for the quarterbacks and they don't get touched and the specialists, they don't get touched. Well, except for those guys, every player was wearing a Guardian helmet, which of course makes a lot of sense when you're trying to keep players healthy. Gannon talked about that. James Conner talked about protecting the players. This coaching staff is very good about that because, hey, we all know that injuries can derail a team and I dare say that keeping players healthy. Guess what? Keep the main thing, the main thing. And that's what that is definitely all about. And great conversation with Max Melton. People are talking about his personality and boy, what a personality he has. He went viral on social media where he didn't even realize who the player was that he bought a Cardinals jersey, a Goodwill from the former quarterback, Kevin Cobb. And then he regaled us with a story about during the break getting tattoos all over his body. With five different tattoo artists working at the same time, and he went under anesthesia for eight hours, eight hours while this thing was going on. And when he was asked what it was like when he woke up, he said, "Oh man, don't use your phone afterwards because I'm calling my mom at 230 in the morning, 530," where she was. So you want to be real careful with that. He said it took him about 18 hours to really start feeling right from that. But that's Max Melton. Sean Murphy Bunting called him savvy and talked about his personality and what a good thing is, what's good to have that personality. And Max said, "Hey, I can't wait for the season to show what a dog I am." So he's going to be a real player to watch throughout this training camp. And I'll end with this. We had a story about a few weeks ago about Jonathan Ganon playing in a members guest tournament at a golf course in Ohio. He said, "Our goal, our goal was to win a green jacket for the third time because no one has ever done that." Well, someone had asked the question and I did, "Hey, did you guys win the gold jacket?" And he got solemn for a second and finally said, "No." It was a downer. Two bad swings derailed us by me and they were off the tee. So no third green jacket for Jonathan Ganon and his best friend. But in the scheme of things, he's worried about football, getting this team ready to play through training camp and playing for a lot more than a green jacket. That does it for today's report. That wraps it up from this Cardinal Camp update from State Farm Stadium. This is Howard Balzer for the Rise Up Sea Red Podcast. We'll be back again soon. You've heard of Pizza Hut's $7 Deal Lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more. But something's off. I mean, pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese sticks, oven baked pastas, cinnabon mini rolls. And that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 Deal Lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are eight-count homeless. I'm Victoria Cash, and I want to invite you to a place called Lucky Land. 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