Cardinals linemen ready for their close-ups
Humphries, Jones could be a red carpet tandem
It was this past December, the Cardinals were wrapping up the final days of their season, and the team’s offensive linemen finally came out of the weight room to an awaiting horde of reporters and television cameras waiting for them at their lockers.
Some of the players took questions, some of them didn’t. Guard J.R. Sweezy agreed to talk, but he didn’t want to do it on camera. And then there was left tackle D.J. Humphries, who preferred to wait until all the cameras were present before he would consent to another routine interview.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on. I got to get ready for my close-up,” Humphries said, keeping all questions at bay as the TV folks started moving into place. “You never know, man, Paramount (Pictures) might be after me. They need me in the movies.”
It’s been a familiar refrain for the always-smiling, always-playful Humphries, Arizona’s former first-round draft pick. His larger-than-life personality is almost as big as he is, which is huge considering he stands 6-feet, 5-inches tall and weighs 300 and something pounds.
If the big screen ever does call, Humphries is going to be ready – hopefully after his football career, of course. But he’s a natural-born ham, to be sure, which is why he is expected to return this season for his third year as the popular player host of the Cardinals’ “Big Red Rage” weekly show on the team’s flagship radio station.
Humphries couldn’t officially commit, joking that he was approached by Paramount to star in the movie sequel to “Shazam!” Imagine if it ever happens, though. Especially now that the Cardinals have drafted another die-hard movie buff in fellow offensive tackle Josh Jones, who at some point is expected to slide into a starting role at right tackle opposite Humphries.
Talk about tackling Hollywood.
This is almost too perfect. Humphries has always dreamed of being in the movies and now he has a counterpart in Jones, who someday can see himself as a film editor, a screen writer, a cameraman or a director.
“I just love the creation of art, really any creation of art,” Jones, the Cardinals’ third-round pick from the University of Houston, said during a recent conference call. “That’s the director’s way of putting the ideas in his head on screen, on film. I’d love to do something in the movies, for sure.”
Could he see himself making movie magic with Humphries, now that he knows the team’s starting left tackle can’t wait to be the world’s next action hero?
“Oh, definitely. Definitely, man,” Jones said.
For now, any fantasies about the silver screen will have to wait. Humphries just signed a three-year, $43.75 million contract extension to protect Kyler Murray’s blindside and open running lanes for Kenyan Drake. Jones, who at 6-5, 319 pounds measures up like an exact body double to Humphries, could be pressed into his own starting duties if something goes wrong with veteran Marcus Gilbert or Justin Murray.
What’s important to remember is that in Humphries, 26, and Jones, 22, the Cardinals have their long-term tackles in place to anchor Arizona’s offensive line as Murray continues to develop and shine. And they share more in common than just their passion for eventual movie stardom, too. Besides their measurements and the fact Jones wore jersey No. 74 in college like Humphries does now, they both know how to block.
Last season, Humphries allowed only two sacks and Jones allowed only one with just two quarterback hurries. Jones, who started 45 games during his college career, was so proficient in 2019 that he received a 93.2 grade by the analytics website ProFootballFocus — its highest grade ever given to a college offensive tackle.
Stats like that matter, especially to a guy like Humphries, whose ability and durability were questioned until he started and played in all 16 games last season for the Cardinals.
“You can talk all you want to, but two sacks is two sacks,” Humphries said back in February after signing his new deal. “I play in the National Football League. Two sacks is two sacks, so if you want to acknowledge it or not, that’s on you. But I know. Everyone I played knows. All of my teammates know the work that I put into this thing. So, the recipe is set, and I just have to continue to pound it and stay to my course.”
The future could be relatively smooth sailing, too, considering both tackles are more than familiar with coach Kliff Kingsbury’s up-tempo, progressive offense. Humphries has had a full year of it and Jones learned under Kingsbury’s former coaching mentor in Cougars head coach Dana Holgorsen, along with Kingsbury’s former offensive line coach at Texas Tech, Brandon Jones.
“Yeah, that’s all he’s played in his entire career. And he played at a high level,” Kingsbury said of Jones. “You look at the pass protection stats – I think he gave up two pressures all year, which is incredible in the system he played in. The pulling, the getting out in space, different things we do, really play to his strong suits.
“I think just familiarity with a very similar system, playing in Dana Holgorsen’s offense, which we all kind of derived from the same place, I definitely think there will be a comfort level there for him that will allow him to hopefully play at a high level sooner than later.”
Jones played nothing but left tackle in college, but he said he’s ready to change it up just like he hopes Hollywood eventually does and starts cranking out blockbusters with a decent plot and a few story twists. He said that lately, he’s mostly been watching movies from the 1980s.
“They made some great movies back then. You didn’t know what was going to happen,” Jones said. “I feel like every movie now, you can tell what’s going to happen and how it’s going to end, so those movies back then, it’s unpredictable and that’s some great screenwriting.”
Who knows, maybe one day Jones will write, produce or direct a motion picture about Kyler Murray. He knows a thing or two about the NFL’s reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year, after all, having come out of the same 2014 Texas high-school recruiting class.
“He was a legend up there (in Allen, Texas), man,” Jones recalled. “I don’t think he lost one game. He won state playoffs, state championships. He’s a winner, man. He’s kind of like a mythical legend there.”
As much as he wants to be in the movies, Humphries said his first goal is to win a Super Bowl with the Cardinals and make sure teammates such as Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Peterson end their playing careers with championship rings. Once that happens, he won’t be able to wait to sing, “Hooray for Hollywood.”
That’s why the thought of appearing on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” this year just didn’t cut it for Humphries.
“Oh, ‘Hard Knocks’ would be cool,” he said, “but the movies that will follow, it’ll be overwhelming. I don’t know if I’m ready for that part yet. ‘Hard Knocks,’ I’m not too worried about it. Obviously, I can handle cameras. But the man? The Oh yeah.
“After that, it’s going to be Paramount, all those guys. Oh, man, it’s going to be like through the wazoo all through here.”