‘Smoke looks like John Brown’
Cardinals receiver faster, happier after recovering from several health maladies
Two indicators give the Cardinals hope receiver John Brown has overcome the health maladies that caused a dive in his production last season:
» In offseason practices, Brown is displaying the speed and explosiveness that made him such a threat in 2015.
» Brown is smiling, something he didn’t do much in 2016.
“Smoke looks like John Brown,” coach Bruce Arians said after Tuesday’s practice, using Brown’s nickname. “A couple of those routes he ran, he did not run one route like that last year. Knock on wood, it stays that way.”
Brown’s struggles in 2016 started with suffering a concussion that caused him to miss most of training camp. Once the regular season started, he suffered from fatigue and muscle soreness. The cause remained a mystery until it was determined he carried the sickle-cell trait.
The Cardinals adjusted Brown’s workload and recovery protocol, which helped, but he rarely, if ever, looked like the receiver who gained 1,003 yards and
scored seven touchdowns in 2015. His 2016 statistics were roughly half that.
But Brown’s outlook for this season is much brighter. Part of the reason, he said, had to do with a cyst near his spine that doctors discovered and drained this offseason.
“Twenty-four hours after they drained the cyst I was feeling normal,” Brown said. “After a week or two, going back home and I was running around and able to do things with my daughter I couldn’t do. I just realized I was feeling real good.”
Brown felt so lousy in 2016 that he often was too tired to play with his daughter, Caia, much less play football.
“I would be struggling to pick her up,” he said. “She’d want me to play with her and I’d hold her off for like three hours and go to sleep.”
What told Brown this offseason that he was back to normal had nothing to do with football. He took Caia to Disney World and “walked around for four hours without complaining,” he said. “I couldn’t do that (in 2016). Not at all.”
Brown’s lack of production wasn’t the only reason the Cardinals’ offense was less potent last year, but it played a significant role. Throwing deep is a staple of Arians’ system, and entering 2016, Brown and Michael Floyd were the team’s two most dangerous deep threats.
Floyd played poorly and was released in December after a drunk driving arrest. Brown caught no more than one pass per game over eight games and had 100 yards receiving only once.
“I felt like I hurt the team a lot,” Brown said. “It was painful. Not only couldn’t I help the team, but I wasn’t the dad, the person my family knew I could be.”
Teammates and coaches noticed the difference on and off the field. Brown smiled only occasionally last year, and everyone missed his touchdown celebrations, including “Peanut Butter Jelly Dance.”
“He just has a different energy about
» The team signed linebacker Mikey Bart, a rookie free agent from North Carolina and waived defensive tackle Collin Bevins, a rookie free agent.
» Two longtime Cardinals scouts have left for other jobs in the past week. Malik Boy, the assistant director of pro scouting for the past three years, was hired by the Bills as director of pro personnel. Boyd spent 12 seasons with the Cardinals, first as an area college scout, then as regional scout before moving to the pro personnel department in 2014. Mike Boni, an area scout, took a job with the Titans after spending nine seasons with the Cardinals.
Brian Webber: What was your reaction to the (Cardinals) releasing you after you’ve been reinstated?
Daryl Washington: My reaction was pretty much like anyone else. You hate to get released, you hate to be in the situation where two teams can’t come to an agreement, but there’s no animosity towards the team. You just say, well now it just adds more fuel to the fire and more motivation for you to go meet with 31 other teams. That was pretty much my reaction and my mindset.