There’s been a lot of speculation about what the Cardinals offense will look like in head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s first season in Arizona and a full answer to that question won’t come until the team is on the field in September.
Kingsbury’s college work suggests a fondness for playing at a high tempo and it appears that will remain one of the hallmarks of his system in the NFL. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said that getting accustomed to that pace has been a big adjustment to make this offseason and it will be a necessary one to make the offense hit on all cylinders.
“It’s not so much what he’s installing that stands out; it’s how it’s run, the tempo of it,” Fitzgerald said, via Robert Klemko of SI.com. “Every single day, with more experience, we were able to run it faster and faster and faster, get more plays in more efficiently. The faster guys understand the concepts the more pressure we can put on defenses. The language is simpler, but you have to process it faster. In this system, you’re on the ball and you don’t have an abundance of time to understand what’s going on. You have to decipher and be able to play fast.”
It should help that rookie quarterback Kyler Murray played in a similar system in college. Fitzgerald said in June that the rookie already had an impressive grasp of the offense and making sure everyone else is on the same page will be a crucial part of this summer’s work.