Five Things You Won’t Hear During Arizona Cardinals OTA’s

Apr. 26, 2013; Tempe, AZ, USA; From left Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians , offensive guard Jonathan Cooper , general manager Steve Keim and president Michael Bidwill pose for a photo during a press conference at the Cardinals Training Facility. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Cardinals are preparing for a month of OTA’s here in May.  They start with a rookie camp May 10-12, which is mandatory.  There will be three sets of OTA’s for the rest of the team, May 14-16, May 21-23, and June 3-6.  Their mandatory mini-camp is June 11-13.  There are many things different about this year’s team.  That probably means a lot of the news coming out of these activities and camps will be different.  Different coaches, different players, different everything.  I’ve compiled five things you probably won’t hear this year.

First thing you won’t hear is you won’t hear from fans is “man, I sure miss Kevin Kolb and John Skelton.”  As much as I thought Kolb could have given it another go here and succeed, it was probably for the best to start over again with Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton.  There won’t be a competition, though, so let’s make sure we are on the same page here.  Palmer will be the starter unless he gets injured.

The next thing you won’t hear is a lot of the same thing over and over from former head coach Ken Whisenhunt.  His “this team went to the Super Bowl” remark when being interviewed during his radio show the day after the 58-0 loss to Seattle was the final straw.  No, he took the Cards to the Super Bowl but not that group of players.  Maybe at that point he was saying whatever to help save his job.  That’s where he actually lost me though.

“Daryl Washington knows how to bring it”.  I’m sure it will be complete silence on the D-Wash matter until it is resolved, which won’t be anytime soon.

You won’t hear players joke about Honey Badger’s past.  It’s a professional locker room.  They will support him publicly even if they think and believe something different about him privately.  Fans on the other hand?  Well…

“Another sack?”  With the additions of Jonathan Cooper and Earl Watford and Levi Brown returning from injury and Bobby Massie coming into his second season, I think you will see a vast improvement on the offensive line.  Yes, I still think the Cards will give up sacks, but not at a rate of 11.7 per game like last season.  If they can keep it to five or less, they are doing something.