Kyler Murray chuckled, and yeah, you don’t want to make too big a deal about it, but the wristband he wore last week in Minnesota felt weird to him. The reality is, most players want to uniform up a certain way – there is a reason the “look good, feel good, play good” mantra is pervasive in NFL locker rooms – and then, there was this.
“It was a big-ass wristband,” Murray said with a smile. “It took up half of my arm.
“Once you get in the game it wasn’t any different, but I didn’t feel too great about it leading up to the week.”
(Side note: Not looking for people wanting to take Kyler to task for that perspective. You’d be missing the point.)
Murray said the purpose of the wristband was to help combat the noise in Minnesota, so it’s possible he will be wristband-less Sunday against the Seahawks. Kliff Kingsbury said it “helped with a few concepts” and that the Cardinals want to fine-tune it.
But it was one of a couple things the Cardinals are trying to employ to help smooth out the offense getting the plays called and snapped in time. The other has been huddling, which Kingsbury said was “a chance for everybody to kind of take a breath, talk through things, have a chance to think about it more and try to execute.”
Neither Murray nor Kingsbury have done a lot of huddling in their careers.
“I get to see the O-line’s face a little bit more, talk to everybody and communicate,” Murray said. “I think we started (with it) against the Saints and I think everybody enjoyed it. To get on the same page, break the huddle with confidence and understand what we’re trying to do. Last game, it was a little rowdy in there, so it’s kind of tough to hear, but other than that it’s been fine.”
There is a give and take.
“As an offense, we are so used to playing fast, slowing things down can kind of get guys out of rhythm and you are giving defenses a chance to catch their breath,” center Billy Price said. “So with our guys being able to exploit our speed, exploit getting on edge, it helps with tempo.
“But with new guys like myself, a couple other offensive line pieces, it’s nice to keep everyone on the same page because at the end of the day you want to be efficient executing your plays as opposed to just running around out there.”
There have been some obvious times when – apparently for multiple reasons, although no one is being specific – the Cardinals have had issues getting the play called/snap off before having to use a timeout or even rushing at the end of the playclock.