Cards: Important to talk the talk
Inside linebacker Karlos Dansby is accustomed to being among the newest old guys in an NFL locker room.
He was in that situation when he left Arizona for Miami in 2010, when he returned to Arizona in 2013, when he left for Cleveland in 2014, when he went to Cincinnati last year, and now, with Arizona again for 2017.
So Dansby knows something about to build a formidable defense by integrating new parts into the existing ones.
The most important thing, Dansby said, is “getting everybody on the same page, getting the chemistry down and seeing the game the same way.”
That’s the general goal, of course, but how is it accomplished? The Cardinals, for instance, lost five starters from last year’s defense. Another, inside linebacker Deone Bucannon, might miss the beginning of the season after undergoing ankle surgery in the late spring.
Dansby, 35, was signed to oversee much of the reconstruction process that includes one other free agent, safety Antoine Bethea, and three defensive backs hampered a year ago by injuries: cornerback Justin Bethel and safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Tyvon Branch.
If the new operation works, the lubricant will be words.
“You have to discuss, talk about the game a lot,” Dansby said. To emphasize the point, he repeated it. “A lot. I mean, a lot.”
That means talking in meetings and in the locker room, as well as on the field. At some of his career stops, Dansby experienced what happened when players didn’t talk among themselves about the game.
“Some guys don’t have the experience to talk about what they’re seeing, or the confidence in what they are doing,” he said. “So you don’t have the conversations. Things fall apart. Guys blow plays, jump out of gaps.”
Dansby learned the importance of communication soon after the Cardinals drafted him out of Auburn in the second round in 2004. The Cardinals had linebackers Ronald McKinnon and Raynoch Thompson then, and Dansby looked up to them.
McKinnon was a legend in the state of Alabama when Dansby was in high school in Birmingham. When Dansby was at Auburn, all his position coach talked about was how good a player Thompson was at Tennessee.
“Two legends,” Dansby said. “Those guys are two legends. People don’t give those guys no credit.
“That’s what a lot of young guys are missing these days, the history of the game. They don’t take the time to learn the game and know about the guys who came before them to really respect the game.”
That’s not the case with the Cardinals, Dansby said. Mathieu, for instance. “That’s all he talks about, football.”
Like Dansby, Bethea has been the new guy before, too. In San Francisco in 2014 and again now.
Verbal communication is important, Bethea said, but nothing is more vital than understanding your role and doing your job.
“If everybody does their job, the cohesiveness comes easy,” he said.
Bethea has found that spending time with teammates outside of football is important, too.
“Sometimes we get so wound up in just football, football, football,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s good to set football aside and really get to know the person. Just how the person goes about his life, his family, what he likes to do in downtime.”
Judged by statistics alone, the Cardinals defense played well in 2016. Only one other team gave up fewer yards. They were sixth-best at not yielding touchdowns in the red zone and sixth in points.
Those categories tell only part of the story, however. Coach Bruce Arians said the Cardinals need to force more turnovers, hold opponents scoreless after the Cardinals score and cut down on the number of scoring drives allowed in the final minutes of halves.
“Those situations, ending halves, ending games, getting off the field on third down, those are more important to me than ‘We gave up the fewest yards in the league, we’re the No. 1 defense.’
“No, you’re not.”