Back in 2004, when Denny Green first took over at coach, that was a memorable season.
I was still working for a newspaper, and the laundry list of stuff happening was nuts: Green telling me how great Joh McCown was as a prospect so that the Cards were unlikely to draft Ben Roethlisberger or Philip Rivers (and taking Larry Fitzgerald); announcing a starting lineup on the final day of offseason workouts (sending a message to a couple of vets Green wasn’t happy with); cutting starting center Pete Kendall on training camp report day; flipping back and forth through non-injured starting quarterbacks McCown, Shaun King and even John Navarre; dumping offensive line coach Bob Wylie midseason and replacing him with Everett Lindsey, who had been playing on the offensive line in training camp and had been cut.
There was more, but I never thought it could get more crazy in a season. Until this one. Kelvin Beachum, who has seen a few things in his career, chuckled when he was asked about it.
“It’s been wild, man,” the right tackle said. “It’s been wild. You had everything that was going on with the contract situation with the quarterback, to start the year off, we had a death of one of our teammates, before training camp we had speed racers that were going on, we got to training camp and you had hold-ins that were happening in training camp, you got to the season … that was just the start of it.”
Indeed, Beachum’s rundown of Kyler Murray’s offseason long contract drama, Jeff Gladney’s tragic car accident, Hollywood Brown’s speeding ticket and the contract situations of D.J. Humphries and Markus Golden didn’t even touch on DeAndre Hopkins’ suspension. Or Rodney Hudson’s near-retirement, three assistant coaches leaving (or being asked to leave), Antonio Hamilton spilling hot oil on himself, J.J. Watt’s heart scare, “Hard Knocks” cameras, Eno Benjamin’s departure, Steve Keim’s leave of absence, Kyler’s ACL tear, or all of the other injuries that never ever seemed to stop. (Mascot Big Red even hurt his ankle late in the season.) That doesn’t even include the results on the field, the last two of which have been frustrating losses on the final play of the game.
“It’s been treacherous, to say the least.,” Beachum said. “All in all, we’ve learned a lot about each other.”
But here we are at the end, with an offseason of change coming. How much change? That’s TBD. But the Cardinals are going to be happy to put this one in the rear view.
— David Blough started five games for the…
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