8/9 USAToday Cardinal Report

[Capital Card]

No new info, but something else to read if interested.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/cards/home.htm

Inside Slant
Pete Kendall was popular. Great in the locker room with fellow players. Excellent with the news media. Always good for a quip in his nearly hoarse sounding New England voice.
Evidently, he was not popular with new Cardinals coach Dennis Green, though. Shockwaves rippled through the locker room after Kendall was cut on the eve of training camp.

The immediate questions where "Why?" and "Now who's the center?" And perhaps another: "Who's next?"

Green quickly has placed his imprint on the team with a number of moves and public comments that have placed the team on guard. That no doubt is by design. There's no good reason for the Cardinals to feel comfortable given their history of the past half century.

But making an example of Kendall, who was one of the league's best left guards before making a successful move to center last season, seemed to fly in the face of reason.

The Cardinals have no one ready to take the job. Rookie Alex Stepanovich, a second-day pick from Ohio State, suddenly is a first-teamer.

Kendall is smart. It's not that Stepanovich isn't, but as a rookie he won't have the league knowledge that Kendall has.

Speculation began immediately that Kendall might have been among players who turned Green in for violating off-season rules regarding the tempo and intensity of voluntary workouts. The Cardinals lost their final week of organized team workouts as a result.

Green denied that was the reason for the move and Kendall won't comment on his release.

But it further jumbles a line that now will has a new face in every position except right tackle. From left to right it's Leonard Davis, Reggie Wells, Stepanovich, Cameron Spikes and Anthony Clement.

Kendall suffered injuries late in the past three seasons and did not play the full 16 games in any of them. He had passed his physical and was cleared for training camp before his release.

There evidently was no negative stigma around the league. Kendall quickly heard from 18 teams, according to his agent, and signed with the New York Jets, where he will return to left guard. Kendall received a five-year contract worth $20 million, $6 million of it guaranteed.

Circle Nov. 28 on your calendar. The Jets visit Sun Devil Stadium.

CAMP CALENDAR: Training camp continues at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz., through Thursday, Aug. 19, when the team moves to Prescott, Ariz., for the final portion of camp. It must vacate NAU because of the return of students. Camp in Prescott at Ken Lindley Field runs Monday, Aug. 23, through Friday, Aug. 27. The team then returns to its training facility in Tempe, Ariz. to complete preseason work.

NOTES, QUOTES

— The Cardinals aren't living in the lap of luxury anymore. Since moving to a new dormitory in 1997 during their training-camp stays at Northern Arizona University, players had rooms to themselves. It came to be known as Camp Country Club.

This year, new coach Dennis Green is making players share rooms, hoping to develop more togetherness.

— Veteran WR Karl Williams, a free-agent acquisition in the offseason and a forgotten man in a receiving corps with Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald and Bryant Johnson, scored two touchdowns in the intra-squad scrimmage - including one in which he received a downfield block from Boldin, a Pro Bowler as a rookie last year.

— C Alex Stepanovich thought he would spend his rookie season backing up veteran Pete Kendall. Now, after Kendall's surprising release on the eve of camp, Stepanovich is a starter, just as he was at Ohio State.

"I don't want to stay on the sidelines, so I'm having a lot of fun right now," Stepanovich said. "It's motivating on my end to get the job done the way (Green) wants it done."

— Coach Dennis Green has wasted no time showing that he is going to do things his way - from personnel moves to training-camp schedule. Whether intentional or not, Green has set a schedule that makes it difficult for anyone from Phoenix to make the 2 1/2-hour drive up the mountain to see the team in training camp, although workouts remain open to the public.

Green moved the intra-squad scrimmage from its traditional Saturday afternoon to Friday at 7 p.m., limiting those who worked on Friday from making the trip. And the weekend schedule before the team begins preseason play calls mostly for rest on Saturday and Sundays.

Only 4,500 were in the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome for Friday's scrimmage.

Creating a fan-unfriendly camp schedule flies in the face of a comment Green made early in the week regarding the popularity of football: "I guess since people like to see people get hit, it's the most popular sport there is. I think people would rather see someone hit a man than hit a baseball, obviously."

QUOTE TO NOTE: "I don't think you would draft a left tackle No. 2 and then think he's a guard. I think Leonard Davis is a tackle. That's what I thought when he came out in the draft. I think that's why he's making the kind of money he's making, and I think that's the most natural position for him." — Cardinals coach Dennis Green, on moving Davis from RG to LT this season.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

BATTLE OF THE WEEK: With the loss to injury of RB Marcel Shipp for at least three months and possibly for the entire season, Josh Scobey and Damien Anderson are deadlocked in their quest to become the new backup to 35-year-old starter Emmitt Smith. Scobey has been an effective kickoff returner but never has carried from scrimmage in an NFL game. Anderson who shown that he is a capable fill in over the past two seasons, but he nearly died in a rollover accident during the off season and it still is unknown how effectively he will come back. Backup RB is a vital role given Smith's age and his having missed six games last season to a shoulder fracture. He is no longer a strong candidate to make it through a season uninjured as he once was in Dallas.

OTHER BATTLE FRONTS: It's still early but the most competitive battle is at DLE, where Fred Wakefield, Dennis Johnson and Kyle Vanden Bosch are duking it out. The coaches really like Wakefield, but Vanden Bosch has been a solid player at RE in between torn ACLs on each knee in two of the past three years. ... The picture remains cloudy at OLB, as well, where Karlos Dansby, a second-round pick, is pushing both starters, Gerald Hayes and Raynoch Thompson. Levar Fisher also will join the fray when cleared to return from knee injuries.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: DL Ross Kolodziej, who has a name no one can spell and who appeared to be nothing more than a training-camp body when he was signed, had an impressive opening week and now appears capable of pushing for a roster spot, although he does not appear to be a threat to dislodge anyone from the first unit. Kolodziej can play all four line positions.

ROOKIE REPORT: The top three picks - WR Larry Fitzgerald, OLB Karlos Dansby and DT Darnell Dockett - are likely starters but they're still feeling their way after signing during the opening week of camp. ... C Alex Stepanovich, a fourth-round pick, got a surprise promotion to the first team after veteran C Pete Kendall was released. ... Stepanovich is backed by another rookie, Nick Leckey.

INJURY REPORT: RB Marcel Shipp (dislocated ankle, fractured fibula) may be lost for the season following the injury in the intra-squad game. ... FS Dexter Jackson (back), WR Bryant Johnson (foot), OLB Levar Fisher (knees) are on the physically unable to perform list. ... DE Antonio Smith (shoulder), WR Bryan Gilmore (left knee), CB Tyrone Sanders (hamstring strain), TE Eric Edwards (back) are out indefinitely.