Cardinals practice regimen helped by an ‘army’ of support staff

After a day off Saturday, the Arizona Cardinals are back on the field Sunday for their fourth practice without pads, but they will come on Monday.

There will be another day off Wednesday, then three days of work culminating in the Red & White Practice Saturday and another day off next Sunday.

That’s a set of three segments with three days of practice, followed by an off day. Most practices are between one hour and 15 minutes and and one hour and 30 minutes. When former head coach Kliff Kingsbury did something close to that, the narrative was that camp was a country club. The reality is that it’s smart.

The Cardinals are one of only two teams in the NFL (Buffalo is the other) that had no players fail physicals to begin camp. Around the NFL, 132 total players failed physicals. Offensive lineman Carter O’Donnell was waived/injured the day before practices started and so far there has been no move to replace him on the roster.

So it was that head coach Jonathan Gannon was asked how much collaboration there is in setting the schedule with the sports performance staff that began growing last year.

“Huge,” Gannon said. “I mean, everybody in the building has a role with that and ultimately, I make the decision on what we do. But I talk to everybody about that, the players first and foremost. Because that’s not what we did last year. We had a very different schedule as far as when the days off came, what days we’re in pads, how we kind of structured it. So ultimately, I hope that it’s the best thing for the players’ development, the health and evaluation part of it.

“But a lot of people’s brains go into that. We took a good hard look at what we did last year and you got this person saying we need more walk-through time. We need more practice time and you get them off the feet a little bit more, we got to put them on their feet a little bit more. So, there’s a lot of back and forth, but got a lot of experts in there and I trust them and lean on them to make a decision.”

It’s certainly a far cry from the way it used to be in the NFL when there were pads on the first day and two-a-days for two-plus hours with pads on for at least 10 days before there was a day off.

The Cardinals had two strength and conditioning coaches prior to last year before four were added to the staff. Asked how much things have changed everywhere with the addition of nutritionists and sports science people, Gannon said, “A lot of those things were kinda in the works when (general manager) Monti (Ossenfort) and I got here. Michael’s giving us a lot of resources and making sure that that part of what you’re talking about is on point. Because it takes a lot of resources in my mind to make sure that’s right for the players. I can’t name them all, but there’s an army.

“You guys asked me, ‘Are we healthy?’ Yeah, we’re healthy. As I said today to the staff, like it takes an army to get that done. Everyone has their own avenues that they have to do a really good job, to make sure we’re on point collectively for the players, for all 90 guys. And that’s what we’re doing around the building.”

Gannon was also asked if he believes that’s why there haven’t been any nicks in the first three days of work.

He said, “I think so. I mean, (knocks on side of podium four times), it’s that (luck) a little bit. That’s real, you know what I mean? Because it’s a known, unknown. You know people are going to get hurt. You don’t know who and don’t know what. (Or when.)

“But yeah, there’s no doubt that it’s a reflection of people doing a really good job with all the players, from nutrition to recovery, the health standpoint, to how we structure the weight room. How we structure practice. Hopefully that’s on point. You know, there’s a lot of people that go into that, so they’re doing a good job.”

Gannon also noted how having 90 players working affects practice reps and creates increased intensity.

“I think we talked about it today,” he said. “I think we were at 78 (practicing) guys (last year at this time). At this point, we’re at 90. I’m not cutting any reps, I’m adding reps because we’re healthy, ready to go. So you guys got to know when guys start getting hurt, you keep the same script. Some people are going to pick up. That volume’s got to get picked up from somewhere. Now, all of a sudden, this guy’s running way too hot; he gets hurt.

“So there’s this whole balancing trickle-down effect, and I mean, all 90 guys are up and running. Let’s run ‘em. Yeah, so that’s what we’re doing.”

Asked about the support staff earlier this week, running back James Conner said, “They’ve been great, they’ve been awesome. Our strength staff and everybody, our whole building they’re all there for us. Our chef and everybody in the training room. Our coaches during individual periods. Everybody is trying to sharpen us up and get us ready to play. There’re all for us.

“You have every chance to be successful, you got every opportunity because of what we have in the building. And all you have to do is work. Meals are taken care of. You need body work, that’s taken care of. All you got to do is show up and work.”

When asked to explain the buy-in players have with Gannon, he said, “He breaks it down for us. You guys here it from afar, but when you’re actually in there (meeting room) and he breaks it down, it all makes sense. It’s everything that you need to do to be the best football player, to be the best person that you can be. It’s about those five buckets.”

And one of the most important of those buckets that Gannon preaches is health and taking care of your body.

Without it, success becomes infinitely more difficult.

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