Morey’s insecurities keep him improving for Cards

FLAGSTAFF - The numbers don’t favor Sean Morey. They seldom do.

Morey, who is battling for one of the Cardinals’ final receiver spots, has lasted seven years in the NFL on smarts, savvy and willpower.

He’s listed, generously, at 5-foot-11, 193 pounds, making him one of the team’s smallest players. He will win a footrace with the other receivers about as often as he will outleap Larry Fitzgerald for a lob pass.

He’s been cut twice, played in NFL Europe three times, once at the urging of New England’s Bill Belichick, as a cornerback!

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While out of football, he’s delivered furniture, worked on a fishing boat, dug 8-foot-deep holes for real estate developers “so they can test the soil … if you hit a rock, you have to start over.”

Not that he couldn’t do something more cerebral. He’s got a degree from the Ivy League’s Brown University.

Maybe these are the sort of things Morey has in mind when he talks about his professional “insecurities.”

He’d be really insecure if he simply counted up the numbers facing him.

The Cardinals will keep five or six receivers. Four are shoo-ins: Stars Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, third-round pick Early Doucet and the blossoming Steve Breaston. Of the others — Morey, Jerheme Urban, Jamaica Rector and Lance Long — Urban’s play seems to have been saluted the most by coach Ken Whisenhunt.

Then again, nothing in this is new for Morey.

“I’ve never been in a camp where I’ve ever had the luxury of thinking 'I’m going to make this team,’ ” Morey said. “To be quite honest, I’ve counted the numbers in a lot of camps in my career. It’s almost impossible not to.”

But this season, “I can honestly say I haven’t spent a lot of time counting the numbers … it’s going to drive you crazy … to try to think who’s going to be here and who’s not.

“You can’t focus on the numbers or the results day to day. You focus on the process. Understand and do your job as best you can, get better and improve. Be a pro.”

His ace in the hole is his flair for special-teams play. He blocked a punt vs. Seattle last year and made tackles in 13 games.

Ron Wolfley, the Cardinals broadcaster and former special-teams Pro Bowler, believes “If Sean Morey is going to make this team” it’s because he’s “definitely this team’s premier special-teams player … a guy who’s going to penetrate and disrupt.”

Yet Morey, 32, hesitates to say this role gives him a definite advantage.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “At times, it helps you keep a job in this league. You have to be able and willing to contribute on Sunday and do some of the work that other players might not be capable of, or maybe not be willing to do.

“I’ve made a career out of that. (But) I understand, in the same sense, it almost can hinder me because coaches might have the perception: 'He’s a role player. He’s a special-teams guy.’ Unfortunately, in this league, those are the most expendable guys.”

For sure, they can be for the Cardinals, who cut Hanik Milligan — a former Pro Bowl special teamer — just one year ago.

“I’ve never really bought into that: 'You’re a role player. You’re a special-teams guy,’ ” Morey said. “I’ve heard it. But I’ve never accepted it.”

Every year, he tries to improve his abilities as a receiver. Last year, he caught a career-high eight passes (of his 11 career NFL catches), with one going for 62 yards.

This year, he’s trying to make strides in understanding the nuances of the team’s offense and how defenders react to it.

“These are basic things. But when you truly understand the drops of the linebackers, pressures, blitzes, the rotation of the coverages, who backs up who … then you understand the defensive scheme and where pressure comes from,” he said. “I think I’ve paid extra attention to that in this camp.

“Anytime you can help yourself understand the game more and be a student of the game, that gives you an advantage, not only in practice but on game days.”

In other words, he leaves as little to chance as possible.

“I’ve heard coaches I’ve spoken with say that my approach, perhaps my insecurities within this profession, have allowed me to have that aggressive approach day to day to try and get better,” Morey said.

The bottom line: “I don’t take anything for granted.”

Never has, never will.