Revenge of the Birds
The Arizona Cardinals are in full swing training camp mode. With a new head coach, a new OC, and a new special teams coordinator, most of the main coaching jobs came from somewhere else.
Except for DC Nick Rallis. Head coach Mike LaFleur liked his style and defensive scheme, and he has been with the club for three seasons. Usually, a new head man will bring in guys he has worked with in the past along the trail somewhere, but LaFleur and Rallis have never crossed paths.
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Now that officially training camp has begun, Rallis is able to see the new guys a bit more and try to get a feel for where each player is at. There will be quite a few positions up for grabs, but thankfully, most positions will carry over the starter from last year.
While the new offense is the talk of camp, Rallis’ group will need to step up this year. They were ranked the #27 defense overall last year. That breakdown is being ranked #24 in pass defense with 31 passing TDs and an average of 230.8 passing yards a game. They were #25 against the run, with an average of 126.9 rushing yards a game and allowed 19 rushing touchdowns.
Rallis had his first training camp press conference. Here is what he said:
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Q: How’s it been so far? How’s the start been?
Rallis: It’s been good. Like you’d expect things to correct. I love the things that we can control, which is our attitude, our energy, our effort, and our focus levels. Those have been on point, and they’ve got to maintain that way, right? That’s easy to do for the first couple of days. You’ve got to be consistent with that. But I’ve been pleased.
Q: We heard from BJ (Ojulari) yesterday, and just kind of his journey throughout his NFL career has been pretty tumultuous. What do you make of his resilience and where he’s at, his growth and what you expect from him this year?
Rallis: People in this game, when you suffer an injury, you have to be resilient. And it’s hard. You just name it what it is. Like it’s really hard. Sometimes it can be depressing even during that time when you’re not able to be out on the field because you work so hard for those moments. You’ve got to look at this as growth to say that I can overcome adversity. And what’s exciting about BJ is he looks really good right now. He looks like a guy that’s put in a lot of work to get back to the player that he is. Things to continue to get better at, obviously. But it’s good to have him back out there full go and letting it loose.
Q: And now that he’s fully healthy, what parts of his game are you seeing that’s reminding you, oh yeah, I remember this is who he was?
Rallis: He’s...
