During his introductory press conference, Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks said that he felt the “personnel was there” for the team to succeed on defense in 2018.
Defensive coordinator Al Holcomb sounded a similar note at his introductory press conference on Tuesday. He called it “really special” to have a player like cornerback Patrick Peterson in the secondary and used the same adjective to describe the pass rushing duo of Chandler Jones and Markus Golden.
“I think that’s special,” Holcomb said, via the AZCentral.com. “We’re going to line up and stop the run every week, and that’s going to be the main objective. But we know this league has some great quarterbacks in it and you have to have the element of being able to rush the passer, which those guys do. ... It’s a great starting point for us.”
Golden missed the final 12 games of the 2017 season after tearing his ACL, but had 12.5 sacks in 2016. Jones led the league with 16 sacks last year and there are certainly worse pieces to build a defense around than the ones Holcomb has in Arizona.