BALZER'S NFL BLOG

Balzer’s NFL Blog: Palmer in rhythm; All in for Still

Howard Balzer

September 12, 2014 at 12:17 pm.

 

Carson Palmer is comfortable in Bruce Arians offense. (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

Shorter offseasons and reduced practices in training camp can have a negative effect on teams, especially when there are coaching changes.

Teams with new head coaches can report for offseason conditioning two weeks before the rest of the league, but that doesn’t result in more time on the field. Those teams with new coordinators don’t get any extra time. So, while a new coach might be hired in January, he can’t have any interaction with players until April.

Make sense? Hardly. Certainly not in a multi-billion dollar business where there are only 16 games to establish any consistency.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians had an interesting perspective in the days before his team played the Giants, one of those teams that changed offensive systems after having the same one with Kevin Gilbride for a long period of time.

Not surprisingly, the going was tough early with new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, and an offense with a shaky interior of the offensive line and a questionable running game.

Arians took over the Cardinals last year, and one of his first moves was to acquire quarterback Carson Palmer. It might have been frustrating, but Arians knew being comfortable wouldn’t happen overnight.

He said, “I did this with Carson Palmer last year. He had been in the same system pretty much nine years and he has ideas, then you are trying to re-program. It is much easier getting a rookie and brainwashing him than it is to take a veteran and change him totally into a new system.

“I try to never judge a quarterback in a new offense until Week 8. It was Week 8 for us last year. Then, all of a sudden, you could see the guys around him start to get it and play faster and play better. Instead of waiting to see a guy come open, he was throwing guys open. When you are waiting to see a guy come open, you are going to throw interceptions because your eyes are there too soon and too long.

“When you can throw the ball on time, trust the receiver is going to be there, everything happens a second or a second-and-a-half faster, and that is a lot of time when you are talking about the passing game.”

Still Classy

It’s been a tough go this year for Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still, who has to deal with his 4-year-old daughter being diagnosed with cancer. During training camp, Still nearly retired and admitted to head coach Marvin Lewis it was very difficult for him to be all in with a focus on football.

So it was that the Bengals released him, but then added him to the practice squad, something that wouldn’t have been possible before this year before a change in some of the eligibility rules for the practice squad. Players are paid just $6,300 a week on the practice squad, significantly less than minimum salaries for being on the roster, but the income was still helpful.

When Still was cut, Lewis said, “It’s a tough decision, but we’ve got to keep the guys that have been most productive for us on the field. Devon has had to overcome a lot of things with injuries and obviously now with the cancer of his daughter. He’s going through a lot. It’s tough to overcome.”

But things changed. Still started getting his motivation back, and last week, he was added to the roster from the practice squad.

Said Lewis, “You can see it his face.”

But that wasn’t all. The Bengals then announced a plan to donate all the money from the sale of Still’s jersey to pediatric cancer research and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Within two days, more than 1,000 jerseys had been sold.

Said Jeff Berding, the team’s director of sales and public affairs, “A good-selling jersey day would be five to 10 per day for a top-flight player. In the first 24 hours, we sold 100 Devon Still jerseys. (Tuesday) was our best-selling day ever for jerseys. In the second 24 hours, we’ve sold 10 times that number.”

In addition, after New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton heard about the story, he had the club buy 100 jerseys.

Said a humbled Still, “It’s definitely taken me by surprise. To tell you the truth, it just shows you how much the NFL, how much sports have an impact on what’s going on in this world. For people to buy my jerseys to bring awareness to pediatric cancer and help raise money for research is great.”

The Earl of Punt Returns

Things didn’t go well for Seattle safety Earl Thomas when he was used as a punt returner in the team’s season opener. It didn’t take very long for coach Pete Carroll to make a change.

Said Carroll, “I think that the focus from Earl on the punt thing is so much because he wants to do so well that I’d like to take that off him. He’s going to still be available for us on punt returns and we’ll use him when we need him but we’ll use Bryan Walters back there and mix our guys as we go. I just noticed in the game that he wants to do so well that his focus is challenged and I’d rather have his focus playing at safety. After the long experiment and time that we spent doing it, he’s not doing it.

“He understands. He sees it. He has such tremendous pride in his position and what he brings to defense and what it takes to get that focus. He sensed it also, so we really just talked it through. It made sense to him too and he actually had the same thought the night before when I talked to him.”

Said Thomas, “It’s not about me; it’s about the team. So I just took it that way. I’m all in no matter what the situation is. B-Walt (Walters), he’s a great returner, he deserves it, he’s been working hard. It doesn’t always happen like you want it too. But I know I’m still up as far as situations and I’ll always be prepared. I know I’m going to impact this team as far as punt return in a positive way.”