The Rise Up, See Red podcast

Cardinals training camp update: Week 1 wrap-up with Howard Balzer

The Arizona Cardinals had a day off after three days of practice in training camp, so Howard Balzer gives an end-of-week wrap-up.

He reminisces about how things have changed in years past in training camps. He tells us about how the Cardinals were one of only two teams not to have a player fail a physical to start camp.

He talked about players of note in the first week. Enjoy the show!

Duration:: 17m
Broadcast on:: 27 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Well, it sounds like the tenants at your rental property sure know how to throw a great party. You just wish they wouldn't throw so many parties, on Tuesdays, until 4am. And if they could pay the rent on time, that would be nice too. Being a landlord can be stressful, but it doesn't have to be. Let renters warehouse handle the hard part of property management for you, like finding quality tenants you can trust. Renters warehouse manages thousands of single-family homes, and specializes in locating reliable tenants at the right price for your property, usually in a matter of days. And if your tenant defaults for any reason, they'll replace them for free up to 18 months under their tenant warranty program. From rent collection to maintenance coordination, their best-in-class property management professionals do it all. All for one flat, monthly fee. Get a free rental price analysis at renterswarehouse.com to find out how much your home can rent for. That's renterswarehouse.com. For Call 303-974-9444 to speak to a rent estate advisor today. Clip smart coupons to save more than ever before on household essentials, everyday meals and snacks, and more at family dollar. From home cleaning products for every surface, and meal prep basics like canned vegetables and spices, to chips, sodas, frozen pizzas, and other snack time favorites, you're just a clip and a scan away from saving hundreds every year on things you need and they crave. Plus, download the new app to claim your savings today. Family Dollar, helping you do more! This is Howard Balzer, and welcome to this Cardinals Camp Update for the Rise Up Sea Red Podcast, the best hour of Cardinals Talk on the Web. Well, it's a Saturday. Chicago, one saying about Saturday in the park. Well, I don't think any of the Cardinals are at the park today. It's way too hot. But they're not on the practice field either. It got me thinking to what a brave new world it is in the National Football League. It certainly is a whole new world from what it used to be. Heck, I can remember covering the Cardinals way, way back in the day when they were in St. Louis. When they had training camp at a small school called Lindenwood College, they would practice two times a day, which of course was the norm in the NFL. But they'd practice two times a day on rock-hard artificial turf, the old turf. This is back in the 70s that had virtually no padding, and they practiced two times a day on that stuff every day in training camp. Well, there's no such thing as two a days in the NFL anymore. And in fact, these first three days of training camp as we look back on this opening of the summer is that the Cardinals are off. And if you look at their schedule, it's three days of practice, a day off, three days of practice that begin tomorrow with season ticket holders able to watch, and then a day off. And then another three days of practice, which culminates with the red and white scrimmage. And guess what? Another day off. Heck, I can remember going to training camps where when camp open, there'd be 10, 11 days of two a days before a day off for the players. That's how much things have changed. But I truly believe it's probably for the better. Now you can argue that not being in pads and all those things, it doesn't get teams totally ready for the start of the season. And they'll be in pads soon, perhaps even for this practice tomorrow. But you're on equal footing with all the teams in the NFL. And of course, with the salary cap and the way rosters are, teams are in fear of getting guys injured. You know they're going to happen. You just don't know when or where. But so much of it is about protecting players. And you also look at the Cardinals and so much has been talked about how many things have been changed since Monte Asen Fort became general manager last year and Jonathan Gannon the head coach. But one of the things that's been somewhat overlooked are the changes in the strength and conditioning and sports performance department. Prior to last year, the Cardinals had two guys on the staff, a head strength and conditioning coach and an assistant. That was it. Look around the league and boy, these staffs have grown and grown and grown with sports science coordinators and all kinds of different things. Well, I think as I mentioned, one of the things that has been overlooked that the Cardinals did after the arrival of Asen Fort is they hired four new people for that. I'll call it the sports performance department. And that is crucial in today's NFL because it's not only about keeping the players healthy, it's about having them eat healthy and giving them all the guidance necessary to not only play the best football, but stay healthy doing it because we all know no matter anybody says that all teams have injuries, yes, all teams have injuries, but you want to keep them for a minimum. And the research that these teams do constantly looking at ways to limit injuries, especially the soft tissue injuries is a big part of what the NFL is today. And so this is just the way it is. We all have to get used to it, but of course the players love it. Players talk often about how Jonathan Ganon and the staff has their best interests in mind, protecting them, keeping them healthy because obviously the 17 game series season is a very, very long grind. And the teams that are healthiest in December and then January are the teams that have a real chance of being successful. And one note before I move on to some other items that is notable from around the NFL, we all see a lot of the names of players that come to training camp and fail physicals and are placed on non-football injury or physically unable to perform until they can pass their physical. Some aren't even able to do it by the cut to 53 and have to go on the reserve list. Well, the Cardinals right now, believe it or not, are one of only two teams in the entire NFL that had no players fail their physical. There was a little question about John Ganes a second. He was deemed ready for the start of training camp and did not open on pup. The other team is Buffalo. Only two teams that had nobody fail physicals. Ganes is doing a little bit more in practice. The Cardinals three offensive line units that they put out there so far does not include Ganes, that's one thing we'll be watching closely in these coming days to see at what point Ganes is able to get in there on the 11 and 11 with the other offensive lineman. But he is on a good path, no doubt. Some of the things that have stood out to me in this camp and one interesting guy has been talked about since being signed in May is Zay Jones. Wide receivers had some real success in the league, had a rough, rough season in Jacksonville last year. Had a knee injury, had a leg injury, had a hamstring injury, only played in nine games starting seven and also unfortunately had a domestic violence charge leveled against him in November by the involving an incident with the mother of his child. That charge was dropped in early March. But because of the injuries and things, Zay Jones was not a wanted man in free agency. The Cardinals got him for a good price and he has been a standout in training camp, catching, not only catching just about everything that comes his way but making difficult catches. So he's going to be someone certainly to keep an eye on through the rest of the camp. DJ Dallas has shown a good burst at running back. He'll probably be in the mix as a kickoff returner and star Thomas the fifth. We all talk about the corners. Skarret Williams, Sean Murphy, Bunting, the draft choices, Max Milton, Milton and the Liza Jones. But star Thomas the fifth has been getting a lot of snaps with the first unit, at least in the first few days, who came to the Cardinals last year on waivers from the Lions after being signed as an undrafted free agent and played in 12 games and started seven. So everyone going out to camp, keep an eye on him and in two weeks, yes, two weeks from today, believe it or not, first preseason game against the New Orleans Saints. One of the things that struck me though in the locker room Friday after practice and it wasn't that surprising because Jonathan Ganon, one of his big subjects that he's talked about during the week was the importance of details and the players doing the details right. That's what you always hear when a player makes a mistake. It's not a drop pass. It's not a mis-thrown ball or whatever it might be. Those things happen obviously, but it's one of mental mistakes. Players that just don't do the right thing on a plane, Jonathan Ganon believes, hey, we know there's going to be mistakes. But if you make the mistake one day, don't make the same mistake the next day. So a lot has been talked about the details and the importance of them and how important they are to winning and out of the blue when Ganon was talking about this the other day, he mentioned Joe Shimco, the undrafted free agent, long snapper that won the Patrick Manily award in college last year for being the best long snapper in the NFL. And Ganon gave him a shout out, he says, boy, you should see the detail that Joe Shimco does. You'll have to ask him about it. And we're all going, Joe Shimco, really? You notice whatever he's doing as a long snapper. So there it was yesterday in the locker room, a crowd of about 10, 12 people around Joe Shimco. I don't know if I've ever seen and all the training camps I've been to over the years, that many people around a long snapper who's talking about snapping it and getting the right angle, moving the number of yards and all those things. But this is a guy who in high school, when he decided to, and I think his father pushed him towards it, when he decided to become a long snapper, would snap, have 400 snaps a day with his dad in the backyard of their house, 200 at punt distance, 200 at place kick distance. So this is a dude, obviously, that cares about his craft and works at it, and it'll be interesting to see if he can be a real challenge to Aaron Brewer with the, for that job this season for when the, obviously when the season, when the season starts. So those are some of the things that have caught my eye. And I think I'll end today with opening the coke book a little bit, you know, some of those quotes that maybe come out of the blue that really raise your eyebrow, don't sometimes fit into story, but there's a few of them that I wanted to pass along. Jonathan Gannon was talking about the twist this year, that the players in training camp in practice have their names on the back of their jersey. And so Gannon was asked about that the other day and mentioned that it was equipment man, Jeff Schwimmer, who, who pulled that off. And he says, I love that by Schwim and his staff. Truthfully, that detail, I didn't even know. We got out there and I was like, hmm, that looks cool. So interesting that Schwimmer did that, but Jonathan Gannon didn't even know, he says, until he got on the field. Trey Benson talked about seeing the players as a rookie, seeing guys like James Connor, Kyler Murray and guys like that. And he said, it was surreal. I'm still shocked to this day, and he's talking a lot in the off season. I've watched these people on TV and I've played with these people on Madden. Just being around them, I wake up every single day and I'm like, is that really Kyler Murray? Is that really James Connor? And I'll conclude with Yell Defrojo, the Cardinal starting center who is becoming really quite the quote machine. Pretty funny guy. He's loosened up. He's opened up a pretty good player. And anyway, he was talking about weightlifting and things he does and about a weight room and all the equipment he has in his house. But then he said, what I want to do is I want to go to a stone mason and say, hey, can you chop me up some natural rocks? I need a 100 pounder, 150 pounder, 200 pounder, 250 pounder and just put them outside as decorations, but we all know what they're for. That'd be super fun. Just be the alpha on the street, just carrying around rocks. Sounds sick. Well, I don't know if it sounds sick, but it definitely sounds like Yell Defrojo. That wraps up this Cardinals camp update from State Farm Stadium. Well, not from State Farm Stadium today, but it just wraps up this Cardinals camp update. This is Howard Balzer for the Rise Up Sea Red podcast. We'll be back again soon. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. 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