Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians is not a happy camper. With speedster John Brown still sidelined to injury and not much behind Larry Fitzgerald at wide receiver, Arians himself took time out of his day to absolutely unload on the team’s pass catchers.
“I must’ve been seeing things back in the spring when I said we had had 12 guys who could play in the NFL,” Arians said, via the team’s website. “We might have two.”
Arians also made sure to note that the team will potentially look at the veteran free agent market for upgrades at receiver. That’s most defintely putting the entire receiving core (minus Larry Fitzgerald) on notice.
For Arians, it’s more about simply catching the ball. He’s seen his receivers struggle with down-field blocking and running actual routes during the summer.
“Assignments, catching the ball,” Arians said. “The main things the receivers have to do, they are not doing.”
For his part, veteran receiver J.J. Nelson got the point.
“I’ve been cussed out plenty of times in my three years here,” Nelson said. “He’s pretty much saying it in a nice way right now but he’s still getting his message across. It’s up to us to respond.”
The unfortunate thing here for Arizona is that running back David Johnson seems to be the team’s second-best receiver behind Fitzgerald. Already tasked with a huge load actually running the ball, can the Cardinals expect anything more from their MVP candidate?
As it is, this group needs to step up for Carson Palmer after the Cardinals struggled big time last season. For now, it appears that Arians is laying the blame on those tasked with catching the ball from the veteran quarterback.