Tyler Drake | Arizona Cardinals Reporter

Tyler Drake, who is fresh off another pre-season podcast.

I'm not sure if he even has time for us. Tyler, welcome to After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Are you done with your podcast? Yes, yes.

We are putting the, my co-host is putting the final touches on it right now, so it will be up probably after we get off. Well, thank you for squeezing us in on what is a busy Sunday. I guess a precursor pre-season for the media as well, just to be there and kind of be going through game day progressions. What was the atmosphere like for this pre-season game against Baltimore? Yeah, you know, I think there was obviously a little bit of juice, just given the fact that it was the first time the Cardinals rocked their black helmets, so that definitely got a lot of eyes popping. I hear they're only going to use them a few times this season. How come?

Yeah, I really don't know. I think that should be a primary helmet, to be honest. It's really, really clean. I think with the color rush uniforms, it'll pop even more. I think throw the black pants on and yeah, for sure, but definitely one of those changes that I think everyone in Arizona was waiting for, and now just the overhaul of the uniforms, and I think a lot of people will be happy.

Yes, if the product improves as well, or if they can start out 8-0 and actually maintain that through the course of the rest of the season. So, Tyler, it's been, it's been interesting off-season for Kyler Murray, Cliff Kingsbury, to say the least. He was once again calling plays in street clothes there for this preseason game, but how happy is QB1 for the Cardinals now?

Yeah, yeah, you can tell that it feels like he's not necessarily thinking about all the outside stuff. It's more about football, and yeah, I think it's one of those things of, hey, we'll give you a little bit of another chance to do something. We'll keep you involved in the offense and still have you not play, but do something worthwhile while you're sitting on the sideline, and honestly, it paid off pretty good. They had two scores with him running the show, and Cliff came away impressed and even said that, you know, if he could have it his way, he'd not call the plays, but that would be the way that he would not get paid, so that just can't happen. So, this has absolutely nothing to do with that language that was in his contract mandating film study and wanting him to see the game a little differently and pay more attention to it. Well, okay, so that's the funny thing is I think people, you could maybe take it that way, I think with the whole study clause and it being in the contract and then being out of the contract and kind of everybody's questioning of, you know, is he that leader?

Is he the guy studying film? And I think this is a way to kind of show how that he is ingrained and doesn't know what's going on. He's understanding more than just, you know, I gotta go out and throw and try to win the game. He's seeing more of the formations he wants to run or just talking with the guys, and that's, Cliff even talked about it after the game, it's just him taking over more of a leadership role with these guys that are trying to come up and trying to fight for a roster spot, and he's taking more of that, and I think you can see it. I mean, if he really didn't want to do it, he wouldn't be as emotional as he was on the sideline today.

He was pumped when they ended up finally scoring and things didn't work out to the end, but like you said, it's preseason, nothing counts, but don't tell that to the Ravens. I kind of felt like, I don't want to say much ado about nothing, but that so much more was made of that language in his contract when it became public, but what was your perspective on, initially anyway, the Cardinals mandating a particular number of hours watching film? I mean, from my perspective, my thing was another, just another thing to talk about the soft season for this team, which wasn't necessarily the greatest thing, but I, you know, it's one of the things that it's pretty much an unprecedented thing. It's one of those, it's just the language of it was just very bizarre, and at the end of the day, it got taken out, but still doesn't take away from the fact that it was in there.

So I think maybe this is the way to show like, hey, he is doing what he should be doing, but we're not, we're doing a little bit more of a subtle way than saying, hey, you need to go spend four hours of film studies. So it was a very, very, very, very weird, very weird part of the off season, but honestly, Arizona as a whole, this off season has just been bizarre. Tyler Drake is with us from 98.7 AZ Sports, Arizona Sports, following the Cardinals preseason game under the lights against the Baltimore Ravens. Yes, the Ravens did extend their winning streak to now 22 games. I wonder if they're going to curl up in a fetal position and cry when the streak is over.

I have no idea, but I wouldn't put it past them. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Other than Kyler, now that that appears to be settled, and he seems so happy. What are the major questions about the Cardinals as they kick off the season? You know, I think one of the biggest ones is who's going to be the pass rusher opposite of Marcus Golden when the season starts, and I don't really think it's going to be one guy. I think it's to be a collective of guys, but who out of the, you know, the rookies, Cameron Thomas, Mijay Sanders, even Jesse Lakeda is in there, and then you've got Victor DiMaccage, Dennis Gardick, and Devon Canard.

So there's a lot of candidates for it. I think it's going to come down to like maybe three guys getting a rotation more so than just one guy taking over, but who knows? Maybe somebody shines, and it looks like Mijay Sanders has the traits to be that guy. I think he just has to get up to NFL speed. Cameron Thomas can bulldoze people, but I think about the same thing with Mijay. Victor DiMaccage, though, he's really standing out to me this preseason, and he just looks fast, and I think he's really taken it upon himself to take the off season and get as, you know, physically where he needs to be as he can, and it's starting to show for sure, and it's just another.

He didn't jump out on the stat line tonight, but he, you know, he still played well, and I thought he stacked another good game. JJ Watt has had a pretty eventful couple weeks. A snake in his bathroom, but he tests positive for COVID, so he was unable to be with the team tonight.

Wasn't on the sidelines. Not traveling to Tennessee for next week's practices or the game against the Titans. When is he going to rejoin the team?

Yeah, yeah. You would think, I mean, with Kyler, I believe they waited, they had five days before he came back, so I would assume he would be clear if he doesn't have any symptoms or anything like that. I would assume he'd be cleared to be good in five days maybe, but also who knows, and but at the same time, I mean, they're going to be in Tennessee.

They're going to be doing joint practices with the Titans, so there was really no point of him going up there, you know, really in my opinion to begin with. Obviously, you want to be there with your team, but yeah, at the same time, it's if you're dealing with baby snakes and then you got COVID, that's a series of events. No, thank you.

No, thank you to either. Well, I think I'd rather have COVID than baby snake in my bathroom, but it was. Well, and the funniest thing, the funniest thing was that the next day I found a giant scorpion in my house, so I kind of blamed JJ for that. Yeah, wait, when you say giant, how big are we talking about? Oh, like size, probably no.

Okay, not that, but for one that I found in my house, it's pretty big, like half of this, like maybe a little over half a cell phone. What? No, what did you do, Tyler?

Besides scream? No, I had to, I had to collect myself a little bit, and then yeah, I just got it out of the house. By doing what? I covered it with a cup and then found a piece of paper, put that underneath the cup and went from there. I'm very glad it did not escape while I was carrying it outside.

That is impressive. I'll tell you, once I found a snake in my basement, not my bathroom, but in my basement and my mom, after I started screaming involuntarily, called my mom, still screaming, I suppose, and she said, you grab the broom and a dust pan and you sweep it into the dust pan and then flip it outside. So that's what I did. But yeah, the first time I went to flip it outside, I didn't throw it hard enough. I was just so freaked out that it only landed like two feet from my back door. So I had to go sweep it up again and throw it even farther out outside because I didn't want to come right back in. Oh yeah, I've done that with a scorpion. Gross.

Yeah, absolutely gross. Tyler Drake is with us from the desert. It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. We know that James Connor is, not only is a pro bowler, but he's the top running back. Who do you think has the edge in that spot behind him then? Someone to spell him and be the number two guy. You know, for me at this point, I would have to say, you know, Benjamin, the guy has been talked up a ton. I think it's between him and Darryl Williams, but out of the two, it's been a lot of conversation of Eno and really unprompted from Cliff. I mean, we'd ask him, who's the standout today?

And more times than not, it'd be the Eno Benjamin. So, you know, he's definitely taken that next step. I think they want to see a little bit more in these preseason games.

You know, he didn't do a ton. I think we had a couple, couple of carries tonight, but Darryl Williams only had one. So I think that competition is definitely something to watch. And then behind them, even Jonathan Ward and Keontae Ingram, I mean, the running back room is stacked for the Cardinals this year. And it's going to be interesting to see who stays on and who doesn't. I think it really comes down to special teams at the end of the day between Ward and Ingram. But right now, yeah, I'd say James Conner and then 2A, Eno, 2B, Darryl, Jonathan Ward, Keontae Ingram. It'd be my, my five right there. I was looking at the Cardinals schedule and the NFL did not do Arizona any favors in kicking off this season.

So this, for people who don't have it memorized, I didn't either, but I'm sure Tyler does. They start off with the Kansas City Cardinals, Kansas City Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs at home. Then they're on the road at Vegas against the Raiders, the New Look Raiders. Then they're home to the Super Bowl champion Rams. They go on the road at Carolina, which obviously not a playoff team last year, but then back home to take on a team that was a wild card out of the NFC East last season, the Eagles before hitting the road and a tough place to play a division game at Seattle.

Wowzers, what do you make of those first six games? Yeah, it's a murderer's row of competition for sure. I mean, you've got Patrick Mahomes, just that alone, like that's, that's big name there. Then you go to the Raiders and guess who's going to be trying to sack Tyler every play? Chandler Jones.

They know him pretty well. So that's, that's going to be a very interesting one. And then yeah, it's just, and then you got the Rams and we saw what happened the last time they played each other.

And that was really, really rough. And, and again, I mean, Carolina, yeah, like you said, might not have been the best team last year, but they, for some reason have the Cardinals number the last couple of games. So that's another game that you really can't just circle as a win right now. But I think if they can get through the first six games, three and three, four and two, that's going to be, that's going to be pretty good with it. And then they get D hop back. I mean, I think that's the kind of jolt that they might, that could help them in the second half of the season. Whereas the last couple of years, we've seen them just fall apart. So three and three, four and two, they can do that. I think the season is very much in the, in, in their hands.

And then you get D hop back. I actually, I don't want to say I forgot about him, but I haven't heard his name mentioned a lot since obviously the Cardinals have known they were going to be without him for this stretch while he suspended. How much did his injury have to do with their limping to the finish line last season? Oh, a massive amount. That's anybody you ask from, you know, general manager, Steve Keim, owner, Michael Bidwell, head coach, Cliff Kingsbury at one point or another, they all said DeAndre Hopkins injury was one of the biggest reasons why they fell apart. I think you can throw JJ Watts injury in there too. Just the leadership from both sides.

And that also takes it too. So definitely, uh, definitely, definitely, it's going to be really interesting to see how cliff manages everything without him there, because I mean, that was the biggest kind of, what are you doing when every game it just seemed like they were falling apart even more. And it really didn't seem like anything's changing so much in the offense. So I think, uh, cliff saw a couple of things he liked though the other day where he actually got a four wide receiver set of uh, Rhonda Moore, AJ Green, DeAndre Hopkins, Marquis Hollywood Brown.

And he said that looked, uh, like they could have some fun with that. And so week seven will be the earliest we could see that. Considering the money they gave to Kyler Murray and the amount of faith that they've put behind him with the finances. What are the expectations for him personally, but also for the team after last year making the post season as a wild card, but really fizzling once they got to that point? Yeah, I think the biggest expectation now is, uh, you know, ending on a high note, getting to the playoffs, not just saying you made the playoffs and falling apart, but getting in the playoffs, winning at least the game, you just need to see constant progression. I think, and I think that'll, that'll eventually, you know, help them move along. And especially with that, with that contract, I know a lot of people aren't so thrilled with the number of, or the, yeah, the numbers and the dollars and cents, but at the end of the day, they weren't going to get anybody else that could win them games like Kyler Murray can.

I mean, he has the ability to, you know, kind of go off script and win games when other quarterbacks can't do that. So I think it was something that needed to be done. I think they probably could have saved some money if they would've got it done earlier in the off season, but that's the, uh, kind of felt the business and it went how it went and it was awkward. It was weird, but at the end of the day it got done and it seems like all sides have moved on and then, you know, I believe even Steve time went on recently and said, you know, he, he seems like a different, uh, player, different person. So maybe that's a good thing. Maybe we're seeing a new, more leader oriented Kyler Murray.

Do you think the expectations are realistic, the contract notwithstanding? Yeah. Yeah. I think for sure. I think after seeing the last couple of years, I mean, they had an, uh, historical downfall. I mean, just a terrible downfall. And I think if maybe Hopkins doesn't get hurt or JJ watt doesn't get hurt, they might be able to get into the playoffs with a little more momentum and actually make some noise. I just, yeah, I think it's very much, uh, very possible that they could definitely build off of last year.

It's just getting through really the beginning of the year until you could D hop back, which sounds bizarre to say for the Cardinals. Is your phone blowing up? Mine? No, it's not. Oh, it might be. I don't know. I can't, uh, I have not checked it. Oh, all right. Well, that's good. I feel like we can hear the vibrations because you are extremely popular and busy right now. And probably have no, it doesn't matter. It's, it's just vibrations.

It's not beeping or anything. Uh, and I know you have got other stuff going on your podcast too. So we appreciate a couple of minutes. You can find Tyler on Twitter at T Drake for sports, the number four sports with 98, seven AZ sports, and not only on the air, but also with the podcast and the web as well and covering the Cardinals as they kick off 2022. It's great to catch up with you.

Thanks for making time for us on the show live Tyler. Yeah, no problem. Yeah. Long time, no talk. Yeah.

Cardinals corner. If you want to catch it, that's their podcast. We're getting it off the ground, but yeah, love it. It's doing great and we're having fun doing it. So yeah, definitely check it out.

That is the name of the game. Thanks Tyler. We'll talk soon. All right. Definitely. See ya.