Grant and Danny
Scouting The Opponent: Arizona Cardinals
day burns joins us now to get us up to speed on all things Arizona Cardinals as we get ready for Sunday's match up. He's the coast of burns and gamble on Arizona sports each day in the afternoon. Dave, thanks so much for the time. We appreciate you here on in D C on G and D. How are you, Grant, any good to have a good beyond with you. Thanks for having me on today. I appreciate it. I appreciate your time as well. So my read before the season Dave was this Cardinals team is going to be better than people thought they were going to be frisky and, you know, maybe win a few more games than people are anticipating through three weeks. I think I've kind of got that right. What was your read and then what have you seen? Exactly the same and exactly the same. I think our read was that they're they were going to be a little bit better. The question was in the margins. How much better is a little bit better? You know, what's the ceiling? How high can they go? Kind of what are they capable of doing? But so far, I got to tell you, now, you know, I would hope our fan base is getting the point where they're a little evolved beyond, hey, good job and way to try hard. And you kept it close and all that stuff. But there was, I think, a level of encouragement with how they played in the first half against Buffalo on the road, how they played in the second half against the Lions last week when they kind of buckled down and how they dominated a Rams team that granted they were all beat to hell with all the injuries and everything. But but they they honked LA and they never do that to the Rams and they certainly never do that to the Rams here. So I do think there is kind of a level of guarded. Okay, they're better than we thought. That kind of plays with what we were hoping for this offseason. Now, let's see if there's a next step to that. And I think that's that's a big reason why this game this Sunday is such a big deal. Dave, when the commander staff turn on the film, what they see in the way of on both sides of the ball, offense, defense, strengths that they know that this is where the Cardinals are going to provide problems. It didn't show last week, but I think the strength will be in their running game. And I think the strength will be in their use of 12 personnel and 13 personnel, their ability to run the ball out of that, their ability to throw the ball out of that. I think it's a little bit of a hit because of traffic ride being ruled out for this game. But I think they're going to see an offense that is that is really quite dynamic. Now again, it didn't show last week against the Lions. The Lions have won the better defenses in the NFL. But with Kylo Murray, this is not Mr. Cliff Kingsbury, Kylo Murray. He's under center. He's running boots. He's making his progressions. He really has maybe not all the way, but he's evolved and advanced. As a defense, what you're going to see is a really suspect second secondary. You're going to see no real obvious pass rush, but it is improved from last year. There's no like one guy outside of maybe Dennis Gardec who makes you say, oh, that's the guy right there. But there have been a lot of negative plays. There are Goudebaker, you know, after what having what I think was a subpar year last year. I think he's been a terror so far this year. He's played like a guy with his hair on fire. So you see a defense that is I would say very average, which honestly given preseason prognostications is a little bit of a victory for the Cardinals. I think average is about the best case scenario you could have to hope for if you're a Cardinals fan. Dave Burns with the Sierra on Grant and Danny breaking down there was on a Cardinals. Dave, you mentioned no Trey McBride. What does that do to the offense? Well, okay. So I mentioned 12 and 13 personnel, right, which is two tight ends with three tight ends. What made Trey McBride so great is that he's one of the best pass catching tight ends in the NFL. At least he's emerging into that role and his ability to be a pass catcher when you're putting a formation out there that just screams we're going to run the ball and then you throw it. Trey McBride is a great weapon to have in that, especially with Marvin Harrison Jr. is out there to him commanding so much attention. Jonathan Gannon said today he 1000% believes in the room without Trey McBride. That's going to put a lot of emphasis on Elijah Higgins to kind of step up into that role. I think this week and I know the commanders defense obviously not off to a great start. I think this week is going to be a real good test for the Cardinals willingness to kind of stick to their identity even though McBride, one of the key parts of that identity is not available. I want to see if they fit to it even though they're down him because he's just such an important part of that. David seems to me like Kyler Murray was marvelous against the Rams and then has been really average or a little less than that in the other two games. Hey, is that correct and just kind of give us a state of the union on Murray in the passing game? I'll give you against the Lions. I think he was pretty average. I thought he was better against the Bills than he got credit for that maybe the numbers would show for it. I think he was a victim of a few things out there that weren't exactly going his way that ultimately he's got to rise above. He's the quarterback. The Lions game was a step back. There's no doubt. It was a very meh game for him. I think in large part because the Lions did such a great job taking away the run for the Cardinals and without that, I mean it's Batman without the suit. I mean there's just not a whole lot there if the Cardinals aren't able to run the ball. I think Kyler's not there yet in this offense if they're not able to run the ball. I'll tell you, everything in the off season has been a plus for Kyler Murray, but we're not in the off season anymore. We're in the regular season. I think the fan base has been impressed by his willingness to work, his willingness to be the quote unquote first guy in, last guy out kind of guy and his willingness to embrace everything that this new offense is brought. But at the end of the day, it's got to be results and and so far the results have been missed. He certainly had his moments, but not enough of them. If there were a let's put it this way. There were a few more Kyler Murray moments in these first three games. They're easily two in one and not one in two. I just think there haven't been enough of those. It seems from watching the games, he's not running a whole lot. He prefers and I like this, but they kind of live in the pocket at this point or throw in the football wherever it is, even if they move him around out of the pocket is how much of a factor are his feet at this point? It's still a factor. I think he's finally I don't want to say learned, but I think he's finally I guess learned to come to understand the value of hanging around and staying in the pocket and making his progressions and not taking off and running. It is still I mean, like it's still a valuable weapon. James Connor is kind of the the thunder and they don't really have a lightning kind of running back to kind of counter that physicality that Connor brings. So I still think that's Kyler Murray in spurts, but but there's no doubt he's far more focused on keeping his eyes down the field, looking for a receiver to get open, doing his progressions, all that stuff through passing the offensive coordinator has done. I think a really nice job of designing place to roll Kyler out a little bit more, get him out of the pocket, get him a little bit better view downfield because that's obviously going to be a challenge for a shorter quarterback. He'll still take off and there will guarantee the three, four, maybe even five moments where things break down and he takes off and everybody will be wowed by just how fast he is because he is just a blur, but he the governor is on a little bit. He's not looking to do that as much. There's no doubt Dave Burns Arizona sports with us breaking down the Cardinals here on Grant and Danny. Dave, I just had this theory about sports. I want to run by you and then ask you about Marvin Harrison specifically. I feel like somebody comes along and ruins it for everybody else, but in a good way, like just like CJ Stroud last year. Now the expectations every rookie quarterback, if they're not that they're not any good, right? Or we have to have somebody match that or exceed it in order for their season to be valuable. Watching Malik neighbors get 10 trillion targets and all of the offense basically for the Giants. And then you go, Oh, Marvin Harrison Jr, you know, it's pretty good. But it's like we view it as disappointing. We shouldn't. But I wonder what the feeling is about him there so far and with all, you know, how heralded he was coming in. I wish you could see me because I've got this smile ear to ear because we had this exact same conversation on our show guest. I mean, exactly. And this was a form of like neighbors did what he did last night. It's exactly like, like we looked at, we looked at neighbors numbers and we compared them side by side with Marvin Harrison's numbers and other numbers but where they rank in the NFL and nobody. I mean, I don't want to say nobody. I just about nobody in the fan base is going, Oh my God, the Cardinals took the wrong guy. Oh, this is terrible. What an embarrassment. But we are so quick to do that with the quarterback conversation, aren't we, right? Like we're so quick to say, Oh, this team screwed it up. All that team screwed it up. There's very little of that going on right now. I think the one element of consternation when it comes to Marvin Harrison's junior, he has been targeted a lot and he's only catching about 50% of the balls that are targeted his ways. Most of that appears to be on him. There had been a couple of bad throws. That is something they're working on. I know a buddy of mine who writes for the Cardinals website pointed out that, you know, Larry Fitzgerald's target completion percentage his rookie year was like 50%. So no one's worried about it. Everybody knows it's a work in progress. I don't think I don't think there's a soul in this valley who thinks the Cardinals got the wrong guy or picked the wrong guy because of three or four games so far in the NFL. But that is funny because, like I say, in the quarterback competition or the quarterback conversation, boy, we're quick to make that judgment, aren't we? He has 130 yards in one quarter and then 68 yards in the other 11 quarters. That's just crazy. You know what? It's crazy and it is not, I'm telling you guys, it is not from a lack of trying. They have, okay, maybe it was a lack of trying in game one against the Bills. They did hardly look his way and I think he was nervous. He was running slow and nobody was, don't worry, he'll be wide open. He'll get some great looks this weekend. This is his coming out party. I'm telling you, it'll be free. Whatever you want on fender, it'll work out the over. I'll be sure to pass that along to the guys. That's good. Okay, take the over Marvin Harrison Jr. receiving yards. Take the over check. Okay, secondaries is porous is a spaghetti. He'll be so comfortable. It'll be a remote control is fetal be up a soda. I think I'm trying to put together a line for you. Good. Like I'm not trying to be unrealistic. Yeah, like do it for like mess around with Dave. Yeah, I'm not trying to be. This is what I would tell your audience. 17 catches for 329 yards and four touchdowns. And that's reasonable expectations, right? Keeping it reasonable. I don't want it to hot take it or shock. Yeah, like the new record belongs to Marvin Harrison. Like I would, that's where I would set it. Okay, that seems like a very nuanced, balanced perspective guys. And I appreciate you being so level-headed about it. Yeah. That's what we're trying to do here on the Grant and Danny radio program. Stick aside, can you buy his jersey out there yet? Is that still a thing? No, that's still a thing. Can't do it. I mean, our fan's like overall, are they very high on the guy or like that would annoy me to no end if he came in here. He doesn't. They're high on the guy and they're annoyed to no end about it. They're probably more annoyed about that than they are about how many catches and how many targets and how many yards and what he hasn't done yet on the field. I'd be willing to bet they're actually more annoyed about not being able to buy the catch jersey because they haven't from day one. I mean, he's, we were making arguments that he's the most popular player of the Cardinals have drafted since Matt Leiner. Now, you know, they didn't work out real well, but Matt Leiner was a real popular pick at the time. And that he almost instantly became one of the most popular athletes in the Valley right now. And, you know, those Valley with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Kyle Murray and Corbin Carroll and Diana Taroffi and a whole bunch of stars. And he just shot right up the list. Everybody loves this dude. And they hate the fact that can't buy a jersey. Yeah, it's very weird. What about 10,000 foot view? What do you guys think this team is? I mean, is this a wild card caliber team or right now this moment? To me that the line, I know Washington is not that good. But coming off Monday night football, I kind of thought it'd be closer to a pick them type game. What are the Cardinals? I think the Cardinals are a team that in December will be playing meaningful football games to determine whether they can be a playoff team. Is that a cop-out answer? Is that good enough? I think that's what we think they are. It's a nice step forward year based. Yeah. No question. No question. I mean, coming off of, you know, back-to-back seasons where, you know, the disaster with Cliff two years ago, last year winning four games when Kyle was hurt the whole time or almost the whole time. Yeah, absolutely. A step forward. In fact, I think the front office is kind of looking at it that way. Like, okay, we could have invested some resources into this year. We could have gone out and gotten a pass rusher. Maybe we could have made a play for Hassan Retik if he was available or somebody along those lines. We didn't. We're saving it for next year because we think next year is the year where it all comes together and we're ready to compete. So I think the realistic goal is on December 1st. The Cardinals are still in it. And they're still playing meaningful football games to determine whether they're a playoff team. I think from the 10,000 foot view, that's what we're looking at. Dave, I went to a small private high school in DC and we had a sister school right across the street. And I remember once being at our little local Mexican restaurant, I went to all the time and everybody at the table, boys and girls, had all dated each other at one point. And I remember thinking like, this is a little bit awkward. This is a little bit weird. And I wonder how similar that's going to be to Cliff Kingsbury coming back to Arizona where he still has a house. How do you guys feel about Cliff? How did you feel at the start? How did you feel in the middle? And then kind of how do you feel now? Here's how I think we feel about Cliff. I don't think anybody really holds anything against Cliff that badly. I mean, I think, and I say that the last year Cliff was just a disaster. I mean, it was just an organization cratering, completely bottoming out. And Cliff is implicit in that. That was partially Cliff and just kind of his lack of being a CEO type of man. There were so many things wrong with this organization internally in terms of their structure, their GM, everything that they just kind of bottomed out then. I think that the good of Cliff was he took over a three-win football team and the next year they won five and the next year they won eight, the next year they won 11. But starting with that playoff loss to the Rams in which they were absolutely completely totally unprepared to play that football game, it was a rapid descent into pure vitriol for Cliff Kingsbury and that Cardinals team. Tyler played horribly that he got hurt the next season. Coaches were getting fired. General managers were making bad decisions. Cliff in the middle of it had absolutely no answers and didn't. And worst of all, Cliff just absolutely seemed to lack the ability to adapt to his environment and adapt when things started changing in terms of how teams were preparing for him and what he was doing and flexing his game plan a little bit. And I think at the end what confused Cardinal fans more than anything was how could ownership give Cliff Kingsbury the contract extension when they did. That was the one thing. It was like weeks after they lost to the Rams in that playoff game. And that was the thing to piss everybody off just now he gets the content. You're going to extend this contract that you know you're just going to fire him in a year or two. And that's the thing and that was more on them than it was on him. I think that was more on ownership and management than it was on Cliff for getting that contract extension. Nobody could understand how we got it in the first place. Burns and Gumbo, Dave Burns, Grant and Danny here on the fan. We appreciate the insight and thank you much for taking us over to the Cardinal side of the equation. You're getting some intel. My pleasure guys. I'm going to pass along a gambling tips today from two to six on our show. So I'll do that. Flipper Anderson's record is in jeopardy. By the way I think I've moved the line just slightly. I was being crazy earlier. I'm up to 396 yards now. 396 for e96. Yeah. Okay I'll take you over then. I'll take you over indeed. Thank you, Dave, on Grant and Danny.