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No new promises from coach
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Ken Whisenhunt promised a smarter team. He promised a harder working team. But when Whisenhunt was hired — and in the weeks since then — the new Cardinals coach hasn’t promised anything else.
The Cardinals head to training camp Friday in a much different place than they have the past two seasons, when expectations both locally and nationally eventually led to disappointment. This time, Whisenhunt has helped temper the enthusiasm.
“It’s just my personality,” Whisenhunt said. “We have a long way to go, but we have a lot of talent on this team, we did a good job in free agency and with the draft. The biggest thing to me is we are building the team the right way.
“Now, it’s ‘How long will it take?’ We are starting at ground zero, essentially.”
Starting over isn’t exactly where the Cards hoped to be. But their development under Whisenhunt could be fast-tracked. There is finally a franchise quarterback in place, and Matt Leinart still has impressive offensive weapons.
But how will that offense react to Whisenhunt’s desire to run the ball more often? How will the defense handle playing in a 3-4 alignment?
Training camp is supposed to sort those things out.
Whisenhunt, who repeatedly said during the offseason he couldn’t assess his linemen because of the noncontact rules, will do so in Flagstaff. But the coach also said camp won’t necessarily be over-the-top physical, as long as his players continue to perform as they did in the summer.
“One thing I know about this football team that doesn’t have anything to do with me is they practice hard,” Whisenhunt said. “That has never been an issue with this team.”
What has been an issue is unfulfilled expectations. No longer.
“We had those high hopes, we thought things were lined up well and they didn’t pan out that way,” vice president of football operations Rod Graves said. “All I can say is we have an excellent football coach, he hired an excellent staff, and we are more talented than we have been in a long time. I am optimistic.”
“But,” Graves added with a chuckle, “I am also saying let’s wait and see.”
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