The Arizona Cardinals had some good but mostly (potentially) bad things going on at Day one of minicamp.
Ah yes, mandatory minicamp. There’s always bound to be one thing or another that makes its way into each team’s news cycle. So when the Arizona Cardinals got their news, it was totally unexpected.
Starting Cardinals Center, Rodney Hudson was an unexcused absence from minicamp. Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury addressed that in a press conference and said he wouldn’t comment any further.
The Cardinals were already without him for a handful of weeks last season, and look what happened to the quality of play from the team. Right Tackle Kelvin Beachum also chimed in on Hudson’s absence on 98.7 Arizona Sport’s “Wolf and Luke show”:
Earlier today on @WolfandLuke, #AZCardinals tackle Kelvin Beachum shed some light on why teammate Rodney Hudson was not at minicamp today. pic.twitter.com/IyjVvPTIu8
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) June 14, 2022
It’s totally understandable to miss time at work when you have a child. There is zero blame on Hudson for that. The problem is, who will be his replacement if the Cardinals face a sudden retirement for the second season in a row?
Arizona Cardinals’ bad news overshadows the good news on day one of minicamp.
On top of this, Kingsbury didn’t do much to help lower the trepidation factor as to when asked about the progress of Kyler Murray’s contract extension, Kingsbury replied with, “I’m praying it gets done before training camp.”
Yikes. It could just be semantics here, but the use of “praying” is a very suspect phrase. Could you imagine getting on a flight and having the pilot say, “I’m praying our landing will be on the runway”?
It’s an extreme, parallel comparison, but the takeaway is that it doesn’t leave a good feeling sitting in your stomach.
The good news is that Murray is at mandatory minicamp, something that was unclear weeks ago. Kingsbury has also praised Running Back Eno Benjamin for his progress so far.
None of that matters if the Cardinals can’t get a contract done with Murray and are forced to roll with Justin Pugh (who reportedly almost retired after last season) at center or someone else.
There’s a lot of time still, and the panic button should be on the other side of the ocean at this point. But it’s starting to get weird in Arizona, and Cardinals fans shouldn’t like where this is going.