Albert Breer’s Five Biggest Cardinals Training Camp Takeaways: Jeremiyah Love Leads Talented Backfield

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Our second stop is in the air conditioning of State Farm Stadium …

• There’s a piece of where the Cardinals go next that rests on the obvious—between 2023 and ’25, before Mike LaFleur and his staff arrived, GM Monti Ossenfort amassed a war chest of 29 draft picks—14 in the first three rounds—and their progress will be a huge key. The good news is a bunch have made really good first impressions under LaFleur’s watch. Some of those guys, like left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and defensive linemen Walter Nolen and Darius Robinson, were first-rounders. Others, like Dante Stills, Jordan Burch and Cody Simon, were drafted further down the line. This much is for sure—for the Cardinals to compete in a rugged division and through a brutal schedule, it’s going to take a bunch of them all taking big steps together, as second-, third- and fourth-year players.

• Along those lines, the competition at corner has been fierce. Will Johnson is showing signs of becoming a No. 1 corner, while Denzel Burke and Max Melton are battling with him for playing time on the outside. Burke’s got flexibility to play inside too, but the team has options there as well, with veteran Sean Murphy-Bunting moving back to the nickel spot and Garrett Williams on the mend from a torn Achilles (and trying to make it back early in the season). Behind them, Budda Baker tweaked his training this offseason, and has looked as good as he has in years at safety—the Cardinals are going to be judicious in pushing the 30-year-old in camp—with Dadrion Taylor-Demerson and Andrew Wingard giving the coaches good options alongside him. All in all, if things fall right, the secondary has promise to be the deepest, strongest area of the roster.

• And running back might be second. Yes, Jeremiyah Love has flashed his home-run ability, what he can do in the pass game, and showed a willingness to stick his nose in there in the team’s first padded practice on Tuesday. But the plan is to try and not overload him as a rookie, and find the right rotation between he and veterans James Conner—who’s got mileage but is the ultimate pro—and Tyler Allgeier, who was part of this sort of platoon with a wildly talented younger guy in Atlanta with Bijan Robinson. Those guys should serve as the foundation for a skill group that’s got a shot to be pretty good, with Trey McBride having gone even beyond what his new coaches expected (they all rave about his feel, smarts and fast hands), and Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. providing solid options outside.

• The offensive line is the question mark. Johnson taking a big step forward would help in answering it, of course, as the left tackle enters his fourth year. But nearly as important in LaFleur’s offense is the role of the center, who typically shoulders a lot of the mental load, and Hjalte Froholdt has been impressive through the spring and the first week of camp in assimilating quickly to a new scheme and looking fully capable of being a high-end pivot man for the group. Isaac Seumalo’s been good too at left guard, though things still need to shake out a bit of the right side, where another one of those young guys, Isaiah Adams, will be counted on.

• Finally, Jacoby Brissett’s made a good early impression as he’s returned to action with a new contract in hand. Brissett’s now on his seventh team, headed into his 11th season. And LaFleur’s communicated to him that he’s got the hard part—learning to absorb an offense and deal with what a defense throws at you—down, and now it’s on the coaches to make the scheme work for him. The upshot here—with Brissett getting the chance to earn the role as bridge quarterback in Arizona for a couple years—is he’s coming back with a lot of the same teammates around him from last year. Which should give them a shot to grow together.

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