Cardinals 2008 Blog

[Suicane]

Roster Moves, Late Free Agency 3 & 4
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Released: RT Jason King:
Jason is a player who's athletic talent has never quite matched up to his numbers on the field. Obtained last year from Fresno for a 3rd round pick, it was hoped that Jason would help anchor the Offensive Line and provide protection for Mark McMurray. Unfortunately for all parties, that didn't happen. Following a season in which he allowed 7 sacks and had a 28% blocking percentage, the team has elected to release Jason and go in a different direction. In doing so the Cardinals save nearly $4 Million dollars in cap room each of the next 2 seasons. We are sure that Jason will catch on with another team and wish him the best in his future.

Signed: RT Morgan Lamar, 2 Years, $2.6 Million:
Morgan is a pass blocking specialist who will be playing with his 6 team in 6 years. A perrenial backup, Morgan joins us with high hopes of seeing the most playing time he has in his career. In 8 games with Lawrence last season he gave up just 1 sack in 111 plays. The coaching staff is enthused to have another dominant protector on the roster.

Signed: RB Wilford Cook, 2 Years, $1.4 Million:
Wilford is a 7 year pro who spent his first 4 IFL seasons with Wichita before playing last season in Lansing. Wilford is a powerfull back with some slipperyness that has translated into a YPC average over 4.0 in 348 career carries. He is also a special teams beast and we are excited to have him in our backfield and on our team.

[JesterBlaze]

Signed: RT Morgan Lamar, 2 Years, $2.6 Million:
In 8 games with Lawrence last season he gave up just 1 sack in 111 plays.

You'll be happy to know he was playing out of position at the hardest spot on the line (LT) all the while.

[SteveBsFan]

Roster Moves, Late Free Agency 3 & 4
----------------------------
Released: RT Jason King:
Jason is a player who's athletic talent has never quite matched up to his numbers on the field. Obtained last year from Fresno for a 3rd round pick, it was hoped that Jason would help anchor the Offensive Line and provide protection for Mark McMurray. Unfortunately for all parties, that didn't happen. Following a season in which he allowed 7 sacks and had a 28% blocking percentage, the team has elected to release Jason and go in a different direction. In doing so the Cardinals save nearly $4 Million dollars in cap room each of the next 2 seasons. We are sure that Jason will catch on with another team and wish him the best in his future.

Signed: RT Morgan Lamar, 2 Years, $2.6 Million:
Morgan is a pass blocking specialist who will be playing with his 6 team in 6 years. A perrenial backup, Morgan joins us with high hopes of seeing the most playing time he has in his career. In 8 games with Lawrence last season he gave up just 1 sack in 111 plays. The coaching staff is enthused to have another dominant protector on the roster.

Signed: RB Wilford Cook, 2 Years, $1.4 Million:
Wilford is a 7 year pro who spent his first 4 IFL seasons with Wichita before playing last season in Lansing. Wilford is a powerfull back with some slipperyness that has translated into a YPC average over 4.0 in 348 career carries. He is also a special teams beast and we are excited to have him in our backfield and on our team.

In related news, Houston has decided to go to the 1-1-9 defense this season against the Cardinals.

Renegades coach William Keen was quoted as saying "The Cards games should give my defensive line and linebackers some rest as it should just take Bramlett and Young to stop their rushing attack. This way we can safetly triple team Hall and Holst and still have a few DB's left over to cover the remaining receivers.

Should Cook somehow make it past the defensive line... err, defensive person, our 9 secondary units should have no trouble bringing him down.

[Suicane]

Ive got so many weapons the Iranian Goverment has contacted me.

But after last season i've learned to not anything for granted. This team should put up alot of points, but if if's and butts were candies and nuts.

[sovstar]

Ive got so many weapons the Iranian Goverment has contacted me.

But after last season i've learned to not anything for granted. This team should put up alot of points, but if if's and butts were candies and nuts.

What have you added from last season?

[Suicane]

Ive got so many weapons the Iranian Goverment has contacted me.

But after last season i've learned to not anything for granted. This team should put up alot of points, but if if's and butts were candies and nuts.

What have you added from last season?

Much better pass protection, much better depth, a receiving rb.

You do recall that last season almost my entire team was decimated by injury right? You act as if I went 7-9 with my starters in there all year.

[sovstar]

Ive got so many weapons the Iranian Goverment has contacted me.

But after last season i've learned to not anything for granted. This team should put up alot of points, but if if's and butts were candies and nuts.

What have you added from last season?

Much better pass protection, much better depth, a receiving rb.

You do recall that last season almost my entire team was decimated by injury right? You act as if I went 7-9 with my starters in there all year.

Injuries in football? Did you file a protest or anything?

[Suicane]

Ive got so many weapons the Iranian Goverment has contacted me.

But after last season i've learned to not anything for granted. This team should put up alot of points, but if if's and butts were candies and nuts.

What have you added from last season?

Much better pass protection, much better depth, a receiving rb.

You do recall that last season almost my entire team was decimated by injury right? You act as if I went 7-9 with my starters in there all year.

Injuries in football? Did you file a protest or anything?

Alright, first of all, I didn't use it as an excuse. Secondly, it wasn't a hamstring pull, it was like 7 guys with career altering injuries and another 12 with big injuries.

You asked me how Im better? Better protection, better depth= Injuries should go down and if they do happen im better prepared. Thats how i've improved. I only wish you could make it to the Imperial Bowl with me so I could whoomp your ass.

[SteveBsFan]

Ive got so many weapons the Iranian Goverment has contacted me.

But after last season i've learned to not anything for granted. This team should put up alot of points, but if if's and butts were candies and nuts.

Just remember, only one QB allowed on the field at one time.

You do have a good pash rushing line though, and two great receivers so even if prepared to stop the pass it will be tough, i'll give you that.

I'm glad i'm not playing you until week 6, this way I can scout out your team much better.

[Suicane]

Just remember, only one QB allowed on the field at one time.

That right there is the main thing. I think I would of been 3 or 4 games better last year if I had Sanders backing up. It's a real nice cushion to have.

[Suicane]

Cardinals Add 5 Players To Pre Season Roster
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FS Shaun Underhill:
Shaun was a star for Nebraska in his senior season last year, getting 90 tackles and 5 interceptions. The Cardinals staff is very pleased to have Shaun in camp. Despite going undrafted, Shaun believes that given the chance he can impress during the pre season and win a roster spot.

WLB Lonnie Trout:
Lonnie is a 2nd year player out of the University Of Washington. A 3rd round draft pick last season for Little Rock, he appeared in only 3 games for the Toads during the 2007 season.

QB Thurman Porter:
Thurman is an undrafted QB from Ohio State where he threw for over 700 yards and 8 TD's in his senior season last year.

C Kevin Markel:
An undrafted non roster camp invitee, Kevin saw very limited time for Nebraska last season. A top ranked college shot putter, Kevin is an incredible athlete.

CB Walt Vogt:
Walt had 28 tackles in limited duty at Syracuse University last season, he is competing for a job in a very crowded and revamped secondary.

[Suicane]

Pre Season Week 2
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Reno Wolfpack 21 St. Louis Cardinals 20

The Cardinals saw an impressive on field effort from their B team on Sunday afternoon in Reno, thanks to a late surge from
Reno QB Brett Young who's 2 4th quarter TD passes to George Timberlake capped a rally for the Wolfpack in front of a home crowd of 52,300.

The Cardinals, playing mostly 2nd and 3rd team players, jumped out to a 20-7 halftime lead in an impressive first half before stalling in the 2nd half do to a conservative gameplan aimed more at getting out of Reno healthy than winning the game.

On this warm day in Reno the Cardinals coaching staff were more concerned with getting a look at what some of the less herlalded players on the roster could do than the final result on the scoreboard. Cardinlas Blog has a brief rundown on the best and the worst individual performances from the game.



Studs & Duds
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DE Bert Quinn:
Starting alongside Ron Jean, Bert, the 14th player selected in the 7th round, played like a star on Sunday afternoon. He led the team with 8 tackles, 2.5 sacks and forced a fumble. The performance earned Bert a second start at DE next week, likely alongside Albert Covington. The Cardinals are excited for sure, but don't want to put the cart in front of the horse so to speak as they realize it's just 1 game, but the emergence of Quinn as a legit pass rush threat would be a major bonus for this team.

WR Timothy Cobb:
Starting at WR, Cobb used this game exactly what it was for, to showcase his ability and show why he deserves to make this team. Cobb caught 5 of the 6 passes thrown his way for 44 yards and looked impressive doing so. As with Bert Quinn, it's likely this performance earned him another start next week.

SLB Moe Royer:
Starting in lieu of the injured Robert Yates, Moe, the teams 5th round draft pick, had a standout game. He had 3 tackles and a sack but also recovered 2 fumbles while forcing 1 of his one. His big play ability shone thru this afternoon and left the coaching staff with a very good taste in their mouths.

QB's Cornelius Hutton/Thurman Porter:
Splitting halves, the 2 QB's combined to go 20/23. Hutton was near perfect in his half of play, going 10/11 for 75 yards and a TD. While Porter, while not asked to do much, was crisp and effective in going 10/12 for 57 yards.

Offensive Line:
The line assembled to protect Mark McMurray got off to a shining start tonight, not allowing a sack in 23 pass plays. Blaine Taylor and Morgan Lamar, who are competing for a starting job, both impressed tonight. Taylor was 5-7 in key run blocks while Lamar didn't allow a sack in 19 pass plays.

Pass Defense:
The pass defense did not look crisp tonight. Rookie CB's Terry Sawyer and Marcus Oliver and Safeties Marshal Holbert and Shaun Underhill were picked apart at times, and in the 4th quarter the pass defense unit was unable to stop Brett Young at all. While this was a largely inexperienced group, the coachig staff was hoping to see better from all 4 players.


Injuries
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RB Randal Fuller:
Suffered a strained patellar tendon and is likely to miss the next 2 games. While unfortunate, this injury may put the kaybash on any chance Fuller had of making the team as he was already 4th on the depth chart.

P Leigh McCarthy:
Leigh Seperated his shoulder trying to make a tackle, this puts Leigh out for the remaineder of the pre season, the Cardinals will likely sign a veteran to cover for Leigh the remainder of the pre season.

WR Marshall Talley
Talley suffered a broken nose while being tackled during a kick return, the injury is not considered serious and it's highly probably Marshall will not miss any time.

[Suicane]

Released
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DE Stan Amundson:
Stan came into camp willing to play at DE and DT and he worked his ass off, but when it came time to sign a punter today we had to make a roster move, and Stan was the guy who had to go. We appreciate all the hard work he's put in for us this offseason and hope he can find a job somewhere in football.

Signed
-----------------------
P Brendan Rael, 1 Year, 860K:
Brenden has been the punter for Houston the past 5 seasons and was one of a select few quality punters left in free agency. Our coaching staffs familiarity helped Brended out quite a bit. He'll serve as our punter while Leigh McCarthy recuperates from his shoulder injury.

[Suicane]

Pre Season Week 3
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Lansing Ogres 24 @ St. Louis Cardinals 14

This was a rather lackluster effort from the Cardinals who most of the time looked as if they'd rather be anywhere else than on the field playing this game.

Lansing scored 10 2nd quarter points to take a 17-7 halftime lead and added a late 3rd quarter TD to put the game away. Erik Farrell had a 5 yard TD run midway thru the 4th quarter that would make it 24-14 and that's how the game would end.

To say i'm unhappy with the effort shown today would be an understatement. Outside of a few players we didn't show alot of heart or hunger to impress, and that's what these guys need to be doing. Some guys better get their act together next week or it'll be their heads on the chopping blocks.




Studs & Duds
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RB Justin Robinett:
Justin looked good in limited action, gaining 31 yards on 6 carries.

WLB Lonnie Trout:
Lonnie led the team with 7 tackles. While it's not a world beating performance, anything to get noticed positively when you're on the bubble is a good thing.

DE Albert Covington:
Albert had 5 tackles, forced a fumble and recorded a sack in his first action of the 2008 season.

RB Wilford Cook:
Wilford had 3 runs for 18 yards and caught 3 of the 4 passes thrown his way.

DT Raymon Guffey:
Raymond forced a fumble and recorded a sack in his attempt to win the backup DT spot.

Defense:
Lansing gained 380 total yards on us as our B and C team defense looked pretty damn bad out there.

Penalties:
9 Frickin penalties for an additional 59 yards, come on guys, get it together.

Overall Effort:
Alot of our week 2 standouts didn't have as big a game in week 3. Timothy Cobb was largely innefective. Moe Royer was hardly heard from and Bert Quinn recorded a single hurry. Dissapointing in that Cobb and Royer especially needed to catch our eyes to deserve more time next week.

Injuries
-----------------------
RB Randal Fuller:
His strained patellar tendon will keep him out of week 4's game. It's very likely he will be released as soon he's cleared to play.

P Leigh McCarthy:
Leigh is still rehabbing his seperated shoulder and is aiming for a return in week 1 of the regular season.

WR Marshall Talley:
Marshalls broken nose caused him some discomfort in the game this week do to breathing trouble, he will likely be out for the final 2 pre season games as a precautionary measure.

FS Shaun Underhill:
Shaun suffered a sprained ankle today and will more than likely be deactivated until healthy, at which point theres a good chance he will be released.

WLB Calvin Collier:
Calvin suffered a hamstring strain and we will be taking no chances with him. He is too valuable to our defensive scheme to risk further injury so he will be deactivated until he is fully healthy or week 1, whichever comes first.

[Suicane]

Robert Yates Cleared To Resume Game Action
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SLB Robert Yates, who suffered a MCL tear last season has been cleared to play.

Robert has spent the past 6 months rehabbing his injury and over the past few weeks has resumed football activities with the team. Cardinals doctors gave Robert the go ahead to suit up again following an exam this afternoon and Cardinals headquarters.

Cardinal head coach Tyrell Nichols has said that Yates will see limited action in week 4 at Oakland as the valued member of the teams defense prepares to make a statement this season.