Kent Somers

azcentral sports

There were 18 game days for the Cardinals in the 2015 season, and each time, offensive tackle D.J. Humphries could only watch as teammates donned uniforms.

It was an odd position for a first-round pick. Last year, Humphries was the only healthy 2015 first-round selection made inactive for every game.

Humphries’ inactivity could have made for a contentious exit interview with coaches at season’s end. Instead, Humphries thanked coach Bruce Arians for not putting Humphries in uniform.

“I told him that in an exit meeting, he burned a pit in my chest and made me a different kind of person,” Humphries said. “It humbled me and tricked my brain back into (thinking), ‘You’re a pup. You have to earn it right now.’ ”

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In the spring of his second NFL season, Humphries promises he’s a different person and a different player than the “pudgy, weak” one that reported to the Cardinals days after being drafted.

Over the past year, he’s lost about 20 pounds, down to 295, gained strength, and just as importantly, become driven never to endure another season like 2015, he said.

The Cardinals are counting heavily upon that being so. Last year’s starter, Bobby Massie, left for the Bears via free agency, leaving Humphries as the starter. There are no proven players behind him.

If Humphries struggles, the Cardinals will have to scramble to find a right tackle. That’s not going to happen, Humphries said, recalling the lessons learned in 2015.

Not playing, he said, was “a living hell. That’s the only way I can describe it. As long as I’ve played football I’ve been ‘the guy.’ To have to actually regress and be a cheerleader, I had to go from being angry about it to understanding, ‘OK, I can never feel like this again, this can never happen again. It’s not me, it’s not who I am, I don’t ride the bench. I play ball.’ ”

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Humphries is part of an offensive line that will look much different from 2015. In addition to the change at right tackle, there are new starters at center (A.Q. Shipley or rookie Evan Boehm) and right guard (Evan Mathis).

A free agent, Mathis, 34, has played 12 seasons, most recently with the Broncos a year ago. He’s been selected to two Pro Bowls, so there isn’t much he hasn’t seen from defenses.

Already Humphries can tell Mathis will be an asset to him, pointing out adjustments when the defense blitzes in practice.

“He’s such a bright, intellectual guy it seems like he’s in Year 3,” quarterback Carson Palmer said of Mathis. “He already knows the calls and having a young guy next to him, he knows how to do that, he’s been that old guy with the young guy next to him so he’s so experienced.”

The Cardinals didn’t expect Humphries to start when they drafted him. Humphries was 22 and played just three seasons with 19 starts at Florida. The Cardinals had Massie, in the last year of his contract, so they could wait a year for Humphries to start.

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But they did expect Humphries to compete and were disappointed when he didn’t. In training camp, Arians criticized Humphries’ work ethic and nicknamed him “Knee-deep,” because putting just a foot in Humphries’ rear wasn’t adequate motivation.

That began to change during the regular season, as Humphries came to accept the criticism as truth. His work habits improved on the field, in the weight room and in the kitchen.

“I really needed somebody to teach me to eat the right way,” Humphries said. “When to eat carbs, when not to eat carbs, how many calories I should be eating. And eating the right kind of stuff instead of just, burgers, burgers, fries, chicken, chicken fries.

“I realized I have the money to eat grass-fed steaks, good fish, the right kind of stuff. I don’t have to hit the drive-throughs all the time.”

It’s debatable how much NFL linemen can improve during the regular season without playing in games. There isn’t much contact in practice, and backups spend much of their time on the scout team, running the opponent’s offense.

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But Humphries applied himself, he said, and coaches confirmed that. Throughout the latter half of 2015, Arians said he would not be afraid to play Humphries in a game if he had to.

“You can easily get out there on scout team and go through the motions,” Humphries said. “But I felt like, at this point in the season, I’m not going to get on the field. All I can do is a service to my defense, giving them the best look at left tackle or right tackle, wherever I was lining up.

“I had to find a way to make myself part of the team, mentally, so I didn’t go crazy."

The whole season was a humbling experience for Humphries, but he is the first to say Arians made the right decision in not putting Humphries in uniform on game day.

“Being a first-rounder doesn’t make you who you are,” Humphries said, “it just shows your pay grade. That’s all it does.”