Cardinals
“It’s a first for me,” said Arians, entering his 24th season as an NFL coach. “You very seldom get to keep all your guys at this level.”
The familiarity showed in the offseason. Meetings were “smooth,” said Arians, and practices often ended early because so few mistakes were made.
“We went through 13 practices of great football,” he said. “I didn’t want them learning a new system. That’s why I thought we practiced so fast this spring.”
At 32, Larry Fitzgerald turned in one of the finest seasons of his career, caching 109 passes for 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns.
Receiver John Brown gained more than 1,000 yards, too, and only a hand injury kept receiver Michael Floyd from a 1,000-yard season. He finished with 849 yards and six touchdowns.
The top five running backs return, including David Johnson and Chris Johnson. Asked if those two formed the best tandem in the NFL, Arias replied: “I wouldn’t disagree with it.”
The tight-end position, led by Jermaine Gresham, Darren Fells, Troy Niklas and Ifeanyi Momah, is the most talented Arians said he has been around.
All that returning talent doesn’t mean Arians stood pat in the offseason. He’s a tinkerer, and having so many veterans return gave Arians and staff the confidence to experiment a bit.
Just what those experiments entailed remains secret.
Reporters were limited in what they could see and report over the summer. The only thing hinted at by coaches and players was the possibility of using twoback formations more often.
“There’s been a lot of tinkering over the last month and half, two months, some trial and error stuff,” quarterback Carson Palmer said after the team’s last offseason practice in June. “Some stuff we tried that we didn’t like. Some stuff ... we realized there are a couple of things we really liked that he (Arians) tinkered.”
Palmer is entering his 14th season and fourth with Arians. He was comfortable enough in the offense system that he experimented this offseason, too, sometimes imagining he was seeing a certain defensive coverage, and throwing the ball to places he normally wouldn’t.
Both Fitzgerald and Palmer hinted that while the 2016 playbook is not any larger, it is different than previous seasons.
“It’s changed quite a bit,” Palmer said.
So many players returning “gives us a huge advantage,” Fitzgerald said, “because you can delve a little bit deeper in the playbook, do a little more than you normally do in the offseason.”
The most important questions to answer on offense are along the line. Can D.J. Humphries handle the right-tackle job? Will it be A.Q. Shipley, Earl Watford or Evan Boehm at center?
“Up front, that’s where we’ve really got to get comfortable with each other,” Palmer said. “That needs to continue to develop and grow. But having the explosiveness guys, the skill position guys, back is huge.”
It’s next man up for the New England Patriots — but only temporarily.
Coach Bill Belichick addressed reporters Wednesday as veteran players arrived for training camp in Foxborough, Mass. In an unsurprising statement, he said the team is focused on getting backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo prepared for the first four games of the regular season while two-time MVP Tom Brady serves his Deflategate suspension.
But Belichick also made it crystal clear that no Drew Bledsoe scenario will arise, and that Brady will be back under center when he’s eligible to play no matter how well Garoppolo performs in the interim.
“We have finally some definition with Tom’s situation, so our priority now then is to get Jimmy ready for the start of the season, for the Arizona game, so that’ll be obviously a comprehensive process,” said Belichick.
“Tom will return as the starting quarterback when he comes back, but in the meantime we have to prioritize the first part of our schedule, and that’ll be to get Jimmy ready to go. That’s pretty much where we are for today. It’ll be a day-by-day, step-bystep process.”
Brady dropped his legal fight of the four-game suspension earlier this month once it became clear only the Supreme Court could reverse it on appeal. He has not missed a regular-season start since 2008, when a torn knee ligament on opening day cost him 15 games. Otherwise, he’s played every meaningful game the Patriots have had since he replaced injured Bledsoe early in the 2001 season, which ended with a Super Bowl triumph.
Garoppolo, who’s entering his third season, has only appeared for mop-up duty in 11 NFL appearances. Half of his 20 career completions came in a meaningless Week 17 game in 2014. His lone touchdown pass occurred earlier that season on a night when New England was blown out 41-14. He played well in preseason last year — before Brady’s suspension was overturned prior to the 2015 season — completing 61 of 80 passes for 554 yards, two TDs and two INTs while posting a solid 92.4 passer rating.
Naturally, Belichick offered no insight as to how the offense might operate differently with Garoppolo, if at all. But he did praise Garoppolo’s incremental improvement and work ethic.
Also getting camp snaps will be rookie Jacoby Brissett, a promising thirdround pick from North Carolina State.
“I think we have a good situation,” said Belichick of the quarterback depth chart. “We have three players we want to work with. Look, in some other years I’ve seen teams that probably don’t feel like they have anybody, or maybe they have one. I think we’re in a good situation. We’ll just see how it plays out.”
The Patriots face a daunting task in Week 1, opening against the defending NFC West champion Arizona Cardinals on “Sunday Night Football.”
But New England will play its next three games at home, where the Pats are 26-2 since 2013. Their opponents will be the Miami Dolphins, who are breaking in a new coach and last won in Foxborough in 2008 (when, incidentally, Brady was injured); the Houston Texans, who have a new quarterback, must travel for this Thursday night game on Sept. 22, likely won’t have J.J. Watt and are 0-3 at Gillette Stadium; and the Buffalo Bills, who are 3-28 against Belichick and Co. dating back to 2000.
Brady is scheduled to return on Oct. 9 when the Patriots face the Browns in Cleveland.