Offensive coordinator Mike McCoy is building the Arizona Cardinals‘ offense from scratch and Marcus Allen Jersey , big surprise, David Johnson is figuring prominently in his plays.

”David’s a special back,” McCoy said after the Cardinals practiced in pads in muggy weather outdoors on Tuesday.

”You see how the offensive line worked together the first day in pads (on Monday),” McCoy said. ”That was a positive, watching those guys and the way they all work together. We’ve got a long ways to go still but that’s what training camp is for. But we’re off to a good start.”

McCoy brings plenty of experience to work alongside first-year coach Steve Wilks. McCoy was head coach of the San Diego Chargers as well as two stints as offensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos.

Johnson sat out minicamp in a contract dispute but came back for training camp and, as always, has impressed his coaches.

”I think everybody knows what kind of player he is,” McCoy said. ”The way he played in the ’16 season. He can do it all.”

Johnson led the NFL in yards from scrimmage in 2016 but broke his left wrist in last year’s opener and missed the remainder of the season. He’s fully healthy now.

McCoy said that most running backs are all right out of the backfield, ”but he’s special.”

”He can run every route in the route tree a receiver runs,” McCoy said. ”Are we going to do that with him? We’ll find out come the season, and you just love the way he works all the day.”

At quarterback, Sam Bradford is working on chemistry with his receivers Deatrich Wise Jr Jersey , particularly Larry Fitzgerald, who has caught at least one pass from 17 different quarterbacks in his 14-year NFL career.

Bradford and Fitzgerald both were given a veteran’s day off from practice on Tuesday.

”He’s looked great,” McCoy said of Bradford. ”He’s very intelligent. He goes through the progressions. You can watch thee veterans, different from a young player, when something’s not there and it breaks down, there’s no hesitation of where to go with the ball. Sam’s done a great job of running the show when he’s in there.”

Quarterback Josh Rosen, meanwhile, is going through a rookie learning curve.

”Josh is like every rookie,” McCoy said. ”There’s the good days, there’s the good plays and there’s that one or two plays you look at and you say `OK, I know this is the first time you saw blitz zero with this play or this protection scheme, but didn’t we just go over it in the meeting?”

The offense will be designed to take advantage of what the players do best Derrick Nnadi Jersey , McCoy said.

And it’s clear that he and Wilks want a physical running game.

”That’s what training camp’s for, really, for the running game,” McCoy said. ”You try to become a physical football team in training camp.”

The Cardinals overhauled the offensive line. D.J. Humphries remains at left tackle, Mike Iupati is still the left guard and A.Q. Shipley is still the center. But the right side is occupied by a couple of free agent signees – Justin Pugh at right guard and Andre Smith at right tackle.

Now they’re strengths are being evaluated.

”Who is the best puller? Who are our best double-team guys? How do our tight ends block certain schemes?” McCoy said ”So you find out a lot about your players. That’s our job as coaches is to make sure to find out what they do best.”

That’s especially true of quarterbacks.

If a quarterback doesn’t like a play that’s on the call sheet, McCoy said, ”Give me that red pen, we’ll cross off those plays you don’t like and we’ll be OK if everyone believes in what we’re doing.”

The biggest competition on offense might be at wide receiver, where a handful of players are vying for the spots behind Fitzgerald.

That won’t sort itself out, most likely, until the end of preseason.

—



SALT LAKE CITY — An incredible turnaround is complete.

The Utah Jazz clinched an NBA playoff spot with two regular-season games left after beating the Los Angeles Lakers 112-97 on Sunday. It caps an unforeseen rise after the Jazz (47-33) were nine games below .500 in mid-January with a 19-28 record.

“What this group of guys has done — as far as being nine games below .500 and dealing with a lot of adversity and change — I’m really proud of their effort over the course of the season,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters on Sunday.

Now the question remaining is how far can Utah rise?

The Jazz still have plenty at stake when they host Golden State on Tuesday night. Not only can Utah claim the season series with the Warriors with another victory Eric Berry Jersey , they can keep hopes for claiming the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference alive. Portland currently leads the Jazz by a game in the race for that seed and the two division rivals face off on Wednesday.

In a real sense, every game still counts for Utah. And the Jazz don’t want to coast into the postseason.

“We want to stay right where we are at, if not, keep going higher,” Donovan Mitchell told reporters on Thursday. “We want to keep working and keep doing what we’ve been doing. If we keep playing like this we’ll be in good shape.”

Since Rudy Gobert returned to the lineup in January after missing 26 games with knee injuries, Utah has turned into a tough customer on both ends of the court. The Jazz rank 13th in the NBA in offensive efficiency (108.5) and lead the league in defensive efficiency (97.9) since mid-January.

Mitchell, who tallied 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists against the Lakers, has led the way on offense. He is just the fifth NBA rookie to lead his team to the playoffs as the team’s leading scorer, joining Carmelo Anthony (Denver, 2003-04), David Robinson (San Antonio Bruce Smith Jersey , 1989-90), Chuck Person (Indiana, 1986-87) and Michael Jordan (Chicago, 1984-85).

No one needs to remind Golden State how dangerous the Jazz have become as the regular season winds down. The Warriors (58-23) have suffered two straight lopsided losses to Utah and they fell 129-99 to the Jazz in their other visit to Salt Lake City on Jan. 27.

Golden State has limped a bit into the postseason compared to previous years. The Warriors snapped a two-game losing streak with a 117-100 win over Phoenix on Sunday behind 34 points from Klay Thompson. Overall, Golden State has lost nine of its last 16 games and defense has been a primary factor behind the slump.

The Warriors allowed 126 points in back-to-back losses to Indiana and New Orleans. Both opponents lit up Golden State from the field. The Pelicans shot 56 percent, while the Pacers shot 54 percent — including 52 percent from 3-point range.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr publicly criticized his team’s defensive effort after the loss to Indiana and reiterated on Sunday that defense needs to be an area of focus and improvement heading into the playoffs.

“My main message is we’ve got to defend,” Kerr told reporters before Sunday’s win over the Suns. “We’ve got to get back to being a top-five defensive team. I probably chose my words poorly in Indianapolis. When I said they didn’t care, that didn’t mean that they didn’t ‘care.’ What that meant to me was they didn’t box out. They didn’t get in the passing lanes. They didn’t compete at a high level.”

Defense has been questionable in Golden State’s last two losses against Utah.

In January’s loss to the Jazz, for example, Utah shot 50 percent from 3-point range and 58 percent from the field overall. All five Jazz starters have averaged double figures in their last two games against the Warriors — with Mitchell leading the way at 20.5 points to go with 5.0 assists and 3.0 steals.
Womens Jordan Whitehead Jersey