Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur Breaks Silence on Biggest OTA Absences

TEMPE — The Arizona Cardinals are in the midst of OTA session No. 2 with some notable names missing.

All of Paris Johnson Jr., Jacoby Brissett and Josh Sweat were among the biggest names not spotted at the team's practice today.

Head coach Mike LaFleur didn't speak with reporters until after practice but said he wasn't worried about any of the absences.

"The few guys that weren't here that weren't out there that you guys saw today, very much we knew they weren't going to be here. Shoot, I don't want to put it out there but one of them had a baby — stuff like that. So good for him," said LaFleur.

While Brissett and Sweat were previously not in attendance last week, Johnson's absence was a bit of a surprise.

"That's one right there that we knew well ahead this is going to be a day [that he misses], Paris is absolutely fine," LaFleur reassured reporters on Wednesday.

While it sounds like we should expect Arizona's franchise tackle back on the field sooner as opposed to later, it's still widely unknown when either Brissett or Sweat will again put a Cardinals helmet on.

We do know why Brissett isn't present, as he's reportedly holding out for a new deal.

Especially under a first-year head coach installing a new system, you'd think Brissett is falling behind in terms of gaining a foundation of LaFleur's offense, but Arizona's new play-caller doesn't see it that way.

"You'd be hard-pressed to see if Jacoby hasn't done most of what we are doing physically. So it's word association from that point, cadences and all of that kind of stuff," said LaFleur.

"The hardest thing to teach a player is the speed of the game, the NFL game in general. He's played a lot of ball, so he'll be just fine."

Sweat, meanwhile, reportedly has the Cardinals fielding trade calls from other NFL teams on his availability.

"It's not, no," LaFleur said when asked if he was concerned on Sweat's absence.

"I don't even read into the offers. I don't look at them. I'm just excited at the fact that I don't have to game plan against this guy. I got to know him when I first got this job. He's a good dude and he goes about his process. He's not the first guy to go about his process the way that he is in terms of how he's training and all of that. I've been around a lot of really good football players that have done this. But like I said, I'm happy I don't have to game plan against him."

The Cardinals are scheduled for another OTA session next week, and as a reminder these are voluntary — though players will be fined if they are not in attendance at mandatory mini-camp which begins on June 8.

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