Cardinals DT Nkemdiche out to show he belongs
Former 1st-round pick has disappointed so far
GLENDALE — A crowd of reporters around his locker, Robert Nkemdiche was asked what he learned the first two years in the NFL. “I learned I was terrible,” he said. He was joking. Everyone laughed. But, with a new coaching staff giving the big defensive tackle a clean slate, this is a big season for the former first-round draft pick to prove to the Cardinals that they were right to select him 29th overall out of Mississippi in 2016. There have been no breakout performances, just a big play here and there — he returned an Eli Manning fumble for a TD last season — and there have been too many mistakes, including way too many offside penalties. In 17 career games, he has 12 tackles, four of them solo, and zero sacks.
He knows it is time to show he’s better than that or risk forever being saddled as a “draft bust.”
If the mammoth player — 6-foot-4, 296 pounds — harnesses his raw skills and attends to the little things, maybe he’ll even find himself starting up front.
“I try to stay away from the analogies of guys who are busts because everybody has their own projection of how they see guys,” Cardinals first-year head coach Steve Wilks said after Monday’s practice, the team’s first in pads. “In a short period of time of being around Robert, I think he’s a tremendous player. I think he’s locked in, he’s focused. I think he’s doing well and I think he’s going to be a good player for us this year.”
Nkemdiche won’t call this a make-orbreak season, but he has learned a lot about what it takes to succeed in the trenches at the game’s highest level.
“It’s a big step,” he said of this coming season. “It’s not really technically pressure. It’s just me wanting to be good, me wanting to give back to these guys, and all the guys who put in work for me, and give back to the