Boredom creeping into practice sessions

The Cardinals opened training camp nearly a month ago, and boredom and lethargy have crept into recent practices.

University of Phoenix has been only slightly noisier than a library (remember those?) in recent days. School has started in most districts and attendance at practices has dwindled to a few hundred fans.

“They’re getting bored with each other, looking more forward to games,” coach Bruce Arians said. “You have to fight through that.”

To help his team “fight through,” Arians has scheduled a third consecutive practice in pads for Wednesday which is unusual at any time of year.

“We’ve been in camp a lot longer than a lot of teams that are already breaking camp,” quarterback Carson Palmer said. “So you start hearing stuff like that. You’re in a hotel and eating hotel food for a month. You got a roommate.

“You got a lot of things you have to fight through. That’s what training camp is. It hardens you. It makes you a better team the more time you spend around each other.”

The Cardinals, who break camp Aug. 24, are “counting down the days,” Palmer said.

Palmer recognizes that practices are different for quarterbacks, who don’t get hit.

“Practice is fun, compared to taking (on) double teams, getting tackled and getting hit,” he said. “You’re not running route after route. I enjoy practice. I look forward to it. I can’t wait until 2 o’clock.”

Mathieu’s role

Arians said his team looks bored. Not as bored as Tyrann Mathieu was at playing free safety last season for the Cardinals.

The Honey Badger said he hated the position.

“Last season I had a goal – probably the only goal I’ll share with you guys – I didn’t really like playing free safety,” Mathieu said Wednesday. “I didn’t like being in the middle of the field. But I feel like I came to camp and I’m really playing free safety. So I’m getting better each and every day.”

What didn’t he like about playing free safety?

“It’s just boring,” he said. “It’s like everything is going on front of you and you’re just like, you know, you’re the safety. I just like being in the mix of things. But obviously like I said, I had to challenge myself and try to raise my game.”

It wasn’t injuries that kept him from playing at his best at safety, Mathieu said. It was more his general malaise for the position. He excelled as a nickel cornerback in Arizona’s defense, which allowed him to cover, handle the run game and also line up in the box and blitz.

He didn’t get a chance to do all of that playing deep in the secondary.

“I just never really did it. I never really practiced it,” he said. “I never really took pride in it. I think that’s what it was.” Now? “I’ve challenged myself to really play the position, to understand the position, so I feel like I’m getting better at doing it,” he said. “… I’m getting back into the groove. The confidence is coming back. Just really just trying to make football plays, the kind of plays I like making.”

The Cardinals are using Mathieu all over the place in training camp – letting him roam the secondary and blitz while also giving him help deep in the back end. He’s looked like the Honey Badger of old, according to Arians.

Asked how good Mathieu can be in 2017, Arians said: “We’ll have to see. We have to see it in games. It’s one thing in practice. It’s another in games. The opportunities that he creates for himself, he should be back to the player he was.”

Mathieu said he’d like to get more snaps in Saturday’s preseason game against the visiting Chicago Bears, but he doubts that’s going to happen.

“Anytime you get out there for eight or nine plays, it doesn’t really do anything for you,” Mathieu said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll probably get the same number of reps this week and hopefully when we got to Atlanta we’ll get a lot more.”

Mathieu said he expects his role will expand in 2017 and that he’ll be utilized in a variety of ways that allows him to do what he does best – be a disruptive ball hawk and make game-changing plays.

“Quite frankly, I just have to stay available,” he said. “If I’m available and healthy, my coach can do a lot of different things with me.”

Defensive coordinator James Bettcher has plenty of versatile players who can play multiple positions, especially in the defensive backfield. That also excites Mathieu, who expects the defense to be a topfive ranked unit in the NFL once again.

In the lab

It’s not unusual for veteran players to experiment in training camp. That’s what Palmer was doing on Monday when he wore a glove on his left hand during practice. He had a day off on Tuesday, and then wore a glove on his right hand on Wednesday.

Palmer’s worn gloves before at times, including at the end of last season when he had a cut on his hand.

“Just kind of seeing how I like it,” Palmer said. “It’s kind of cheating. Those things are so sticky now.”

At the very least, using a glove now may be helpful preparation for playing in cold weather. The Cardinals play in Philadelphia in October and in Washington in December.