Leading, Conner said, is a “great responsibility.”
“It’s just who I am,” Conner said. “I want to turn things around out here. We have a great football team, we’re coached really well, so we want that to reflect on our record and our play. I want to speak up.”
This is the kind of player coach Jonathan Gannon wants in the locker room, and to inherit him was a bonus. Conner arrived during the Kliff Kingsbury regime and scored 18 touchdowns that first season in 2021. But perhaps more important was Conner’s mindset through the rough 2022 season, through the coaching change, and then again through the bumpy times of Gannon’s first season.
He has grown close to quarterback Kyler Murray, spending time on numerous outings (some of which have surfaced on social media.) Murray has made giant strides in his own leadership efforts, but there is a certain stamp of approval when Conner and he mesh so well.
“(Conner) truly cares about the team,” Gannon said. “He puts himself behind the team. I would go to his actions on a daily basis — he does everything you want him to do the right way.
“If I was telling my 8-year-old, ‘Hey you come to practice’ and you say, ‘You look out there and you follow one guy,’ he would be in that conversation.”
Conner is going into the last season of the three-year deal he signed in 2022, a contract some questioned. But Conner’s production — on the field, off the field, as a leader — made it a bargain.
Even in this space Conner shows leadership, downplaying his personal status as the Cardinals try to make a big jump in the win column.
“It would be awesome to finish my career here, but nothing changes,” Conner said. “If anything, it’s time to turn it up even more going into the last year of my deal. I’m thankful I got to see the last year of it, so I’ll go into it with everything I got. We’ll see what happens next year, hopefully stay, but I understand it’s a business.”
Perhaps underscoring Conner’s mentality, when asked about rookie third-round pick Trey Benson – a draftee who could end up eventually taking Conner’s role in the future – Conner smiled at working with his young mentee.
“He’s like a sponge,” Conner said. “He wants to know everything, asking questions.”
Benson can help the team. And that’s all Conner wants right now.
“(James) has kind of exceeded my expectations for what I thought he was going to be,” Gannon said.
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