TEMPE, Ariz. -- He might be biased, but Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer thinks Bruce Arians is the best coach in the NFL.
Palmer made the statement in Episode 4 of “All or Nothing,” the eight-part series on Amazon Video that documented the Cardinals’ 2015 season.
“I think he’s the best coach in the game,” Palmer said, “because he’s always educating everybody. It’s one of the things that Bruce does that separates him, that makes him who he is. Every time he’s done it I’ve picked up one thing that I’m like, 'oh that’s a really good point.'”
After the Cardinals’ installation meetings, Arians and Palmer sit down for about five minutes and go over why certain plays and packages are being used. It’s during those meetings that Arians said he has seen Palmer grow the most with the Cardinals.
They go over concepts: where linebackers are lining up, how defensive lines play certain schemes and how different referees officiate games.
“It seems like such a simple, no-brainer thing for the head coach (to do) that head coaches don’t do because they just don’t think about it,” Palmer said.
What else we learned in Episode 4:
-- Even though Palmer didn’t want to get into his departure from Cincinnati with the media during the week leading up to the Bengals game, it was a game that meant a lot to the veteran. During one practice, Arians jokes with Palmer about getting tired during practice. To which Palmer said: “This is what I’m living for right now.”
-- Guard Ted Larsen would’ve been cut had the second-to-last play of the Bengals game gone differently. Larsen jumped before the snap on a play where Palmer was supposed to spike the ball to kill the clock to set up a game-winning field goal. But the officials ruled that Bengals defensive lineman Domata Peko simulated Palmer’s cadence. Had the penalty been on Larsen, there would’ve been a 10-second runoff and the game would’ve gone to overtime. Instead, Chandler Catanzaro kicked a winning field goal. “Ted, you’re very, very lucky,” Arians said. “You wouldn’t be sitting where you’re at right now. There’s no f---ing excuse for you to move in that goddamn situation. We’re killing that clock.”
-- Palmer knows who he’d choose for a game of pickup basketball -- and there’s a good chance it wouldn't be wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. “He’s a really good athlete that’s not good at basketball,” Palmer said. Palmer considered himself one of the top three players on the team, saying “I’ve got a jumper like nobody on this team. I don’t miss.” Two of the five would be cornerback Patrick Peterson and wide receiver Britt Golden. But Palmer doesn’t think Pro Bowl defensive tackle Calais Campbell would be the type of basketball player who would contribute on offense. “Calais would give you everything he’s got on the defensive end, get every rebound and you wouldn’t pass him the ball.”
-- When the Cardinals played the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 11 last year, Arians believed they were the best all-around team the Cardinals had faced up to that point.
-- When Palmer struggled in the first half of the Bengals game, Arians was surprised, saying on the headset that he’d never seen that kind of look on Palmer’s face before.
-- Late in every week, Arians reviews end-of-game scenarios during a team meeting. Sometimes they’re quirky plays that happened or obscure rules that were enforced. But Arians had a message for his team: “Each week these games come down to critical errors. It’s not really as much as who makes the play as who doesn’t f--- it up. Don’t be the guy that f---s it up.”
-- Arians played up “Niners Week” because that Cardinals hadn’t won in San Francisco since 2008 prior to last season. “Guys who have been here for a while know what this means,” Arians said. “I don’t know how the 49ers could be a trap game for us. We haven’t won there in eight years. It’s a division road game. Nothing else really needs to be said.”
-- Arians had a premonition that the Cardinals would struggle against the 49ers, which they did. “If this warmup is any indication, we’re going to suck,” he said during pregame warmups. “This is the worst warmup we had all year. We didn’t have 11 out there half the time.”
-- Former safety Rashad Johnson doesn’t like to cook -- or help out in the kitchen. When his fiancée, Chelsea Brown, asked if he wanted to make some cornbread on Thanksgiving, Johnson did what every guy would do: He said he had football to watch.
-- The Cardinals have evaluated about 1,000 players to help prepare their “ready list” of free agents, said Quentin Harris, the Cardinals’ director of pro scouting. “If something happens, we don’t have time to watch the film and watch the guy.”
-- When the Cardinals reached out to defensive tackle Red Bryant the day before Thanksgiving, he told vice president of player personnel Terry McDonough that he had one change of clothes in Texas. But Bryant grabbed his ID and headed to Houston Hobby airport for a tryout with Arizona on Thanksgiving morning. Arizona saw Bryant’s dedication to trying out on Thanksgiving as a sign that he was committed to making the team.
