Kent Somers

azcentral sports

Returning Cardinals players began work on the football field this week, and a rookie minicamp is scheduled for Friday through Sunday.

Cardinals beat writer Kent Somers recently sat down this week with coach Bruce Arians to talk about his foundation’s upcoming fundraiser, the draft, rookie free agency, the work players do in the spring and summer and the 2016 season.

Question: The Arians Family Foundation is having its fundraising dinner on May 22 at Steak 44. A lot of charities have dinners, how is yours unique? (For more information visit: ariansfamilyfoundation.com)

Answer: Every table has a player or a coach or two. And you have their undivided attention for an hour and half. You get to grill ‘em. All those questions you have about anybody. And our guys do such a great job of having fun with them. It’s just a lot of fellowship for a great cause. They’re no speeches. I’ll thank everybody for coming; they know why they are here.

Q: Do fans ask better questions than people like myself do?

A: Uh, no, although sometimes you get some real fun ones.

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Q: Shifting into football, what do you hope rookies get out of the minicamp this weekend?

A: They get their baptism. There’s going to be an unbelievable amount of information thrown at them. You see if they can decipher it and go out on the field and play fast. You get a good judge on how you’re going to have to teach guys to get them ready.

I love this weekend because there’s going to be two or three surprises of undrafted rookies or guys we invited for a tryout. Last year, we signed three guys who were tryout guys. (Quarterback) Phillip Sims made it all the way to almost our football team. That part’s really fun. Then slide them in with the vets next week.

It seems like we just stepped off the practice field. But, man, there is a different sense of purpose in watching our players come to work every day. We’ve always had great participation. We’ve always had fun doing it, but there’s a sense of purpose, in the weight room, the meeting room. Even Buddy Morris, our strength coach, said, "something’s different." You can feel it.

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Q: Is that something you can see, or have experienced or just a feeling?

A: It’s a feeling, just the way they’re approaching every single thing that we’re going. They’re listening. They don’t always listen but they’re listening.

Q: As a coach, is it hard to balance that you’ve got a veteran group returning, yet you don’t want to assume they know everything? Do you start all over again?

A: Start completely over. With how to get in the huddle, what our snap count is. We open the playbook on page one and we go back through the whole thing.

Q: No one can accurately grade a draft the day after it ends, but we do it anyway. You received a lot of Bs and Cs. How do you feel about it those six picks?

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A: Probably in my 28 years of drafts, I don’t think I saw a board ever fall where the guy standing out was a player (at a) position of need on the team. All the way down to the last pick. It’s hard to believe there were seven rows of players (names). We’re over here and the one name standing over here is (cornerback) Harlan Miller. We’re going to take him. Of those six picks, it just fell that way every single time.

Q: Last year, there were a couple of guys you had your eyes on that went right before you. And in the three previous years, you made trades. This draft just seemed to go boom, boom, boom.

A: I was looking to see if there was going to be a quarterback and there was never (a time). A quarterback was always in this other column and a standout player was here. You can’t do it. You have to stay with the board.

I’m really, really excited about having Jake Coker come in and compete as an undrafted player. You just watched him grow his senior year. I’m really anxious to get my hands on him.

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Q: Anyone else among the undrafted rookies intrigue you?

A: There are a number of guys at different positions who are going to have a chance. It is truly a really good group. There is a young man from Canada who is a corner (Eli Bouka, Calgary). He’s not going to be able to go; he’s still coming off an injury. But his tape is unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Q: How did you hear about him?

A: Our scouts, man. There were about seven Canadian dudes on our board.

Q: You go through May and June and organized team activities are over, how do you decompress, what do you do when it’s time for Bruce Arians and his family?

A: Spend a lot of time with the family. We go to the lake. I’m up at 8, teeing off. The girls and everybody else has lunch ready and we’re on the boat. We go find a nice place to float and eat until we fry. Then we come home and grill and do it again. My brothers and sisters take turns coming down. And, knock on wood, hopefully my mom can make it this year. She hasn’t been doing too well.

Q: When you came here in 2013, you sort of jokingly referred to an old cowboy riding toward the sunset, this is my last job. Have you found yourself getting more re-energized every year than you thought you would?

A: Oh, yeah. You never know how long this will last. There’s the old saying, there’s two kinds of coaches, ones that are fired and others who are going to get fired. You just enjoy every day. Right now, it’s the highlight of it. There will be lowlights, we know that. But I’m enjoying every single day. This will be my last job.