It's still hard for me not to question all of Green's changes with player personal...

[Skkorpion]

I think the entire organizations business philosophy had to change. I strongly believe the security of a new stadium has given the cards more reasons to get it right than any one person or one thing.

Yes and no. Don't underestimate the leadership of Michael Bidwill, who is now the de facto capo di tutti capos. (sorry for mixing English, Latin, and Italian)

 

[seesred]

Left over from 2003 Cardinals.

Scott Player James Darling
Anthoney Clement Lorenzo Diamond
L.J. Shelton James Hodgens
Leonard Davis Gerald Hayes
Fred Wakefield Bryant Johnson
Russell Davis Dennis Johnson
Josh MCown Kenny King
Adrian Wilson Calvin Pace
Marcell Shipp Neil Rackers
Nathan Hodel Cameron Spikes
Levar Fisher Anquan Boldin
Nathan Poole Reggie Wells
Damian Anderson
Quentin Harris
Josh Scobey
Wendall Bryant

I might have missed someone but I've counted only 28 players. With three or four still to go! Talk about your house cleaning! That is near 50% in a year and a piece.

GBR
40

 

[joeshmo]

Left over from 2003 Cardinals.

Dennis Johnson
Cameron Spikes
Levar Fisher
Nathan Poole

these guys are not on the team anymore. DJ and Fisher were cut last year.

 

[clif]

Yes and no. Don't underestimate the leadership of Michael Bidwill, who is now the de facto capo di tutti capos. (sorry for mixing English, Latin, and Italian)

believe me I dont. My point was lost in my last post. What I mean is that I think there are more reasons to the new direction for the cards than just DG. I also think that Micheal had a large hand it the overall direction of the organization with the new marketing and uniforms and such. Bringing in DG was apart of it.

I think having the security of a new home created a since of "welcome" from the valley even though the naysayers are still out there.

 

[Rocco]

Well put. You speak for me. An 8-8 record while being competitive in 14 games (Every team seems to have two stinkers a year) would please me.

Me too.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

This thread has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile. To actually seriously suggest Green cut too much Mackage is insanity. If it were up to me even more Mackage such as McClown and Hodgins would be hitting the bricks this offseason.

Someone fronting for MAO TOSI calling McCown a "clown"... now that's funny.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Left over from 2003 Cardinals.

Lorenzo Diamond
Dennis Johnson
Cameron Spikes
Levar Fisher
Nathan Poole

All no longer with the team.

 

[joeshmo]

All no longer with the team.

Diamond is with the team.

 

[john h]

It no coincidence that the players that he hasn't gotten rid of actually produced.



Just having a good draft (which I don't believe we did) does not automatically mean your team will be better. These players have to want to succeed, have talent, and have coaches that bring it out of them. These guys just didn't produce and we can no longer sit around and wait for them to produce.

Why on earth would a coach want to get rid of players just because he did not draft them? That would be a major case of dumb. DG is not that stupid. What if the New England coach is run over by a truck does DG come in and get rid of everyone if he is the new coach. You get of players you believe cannot contribute to winning. Sometimes the player may be so good you get rid of the coach. If Peyton Manning and his coach cannot get along who does the owner fire? Peyton Manning cannot be replaced but the coach sure can. Does anyone seriously believe Green is getting rid of players simply because he did not bring them in? That would also be a kick in the face to Graves and even the Bidwills as they were part of the decision making process that brought the players here.

 

[vinnymac]

with all the move made so far, i believe this is getting better. the key to this season is the performance of kurt warner. if the cardinals get the warner of old, then the cardinals are playoff bound. i expecet the cardinals to have a 10-6/11-5 and win the division. if the cardinals get a running game going then the cardinals are going to be tough to beat. all in all this is going to be an exciting year for the cardinals.

 

[Sandan]

Does anyone seriously believe Green is getting rid of players simply because he did not bring them in?

No, the idea is ludicrious particulary when you consider DG gets a $1,000,000 bonus for making it to the playoffs.

 

[clif]

Why on earth would a coach want to get rid of players just because he did not draft them? That would be a major case of dumb. DG is not that stupid. What if the New England coach is run over by a truck does DG come in and get rid of everyone if he is the new coach. You get of players you believe cannot contribute to winning. Sometimes the player may be so good you get rid of the coach. If Peyton Manning and his coach cannot get along who does the owner fire? Peyton Manning cannot be replaced but the coach sure can. Does anyone seriously believe Green is getting rid of players simply because he did not bring them in? That would also be a kick in the face to Graves and even the Bidwills as they were part of the decision making process that brought the players here.

ummm I agree. That is what I was saying. I was arguing that exact point. ???

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Can you imagine DG looking at the roster for the first time and saying who the f--- is Fred Wakefield?

 

[Red Air Force]

This is from last year, but I think it still applies, and demonstrates that Green WILL keep players he thinks can contribute regardless of who drafted them, but will not hesitate to can someone who will not advance the team.

Also, for those of you who question wether or not Green even has a plan or is just wing'in it, his personal motto is "Plan your work and work your plan."
The guy is a complusive planner by many accounts, I highly doubt anything that we see happening with the team is just hap-hazard.

Green putting plan into immediate actionBy Len Pasquarelli, ESPN.com
Len Pasquarelli Archive

Quite a busy week, huh, for new Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green.

Let's see, he released five veterans, all of them nondescript and all of them taking snaps away from younger players. He reversed direction on Raynoch Thompson, opting not to cut one of his most talented defenders, after a tete-a-tete with the linebacker. And he benched L.J. Shelton, despite the fact he's a three-year starter at left tackle, and a guy who banked a $5 million signing bonus seven months ago when his contract was redone.



Dennis Green plans to put an end to the losing ways in Arizona.So these four words of advice, having viewed from afar the events of the week, for those folks accustomed to seeing much a slower and more cautious pace from one of the league's most moribund franchises: Get used to it.

Because the fun, and the makeover of the Cardinals, is just getting started. Just wait until Green really hits his stride.

He may not be a miracle worker, which is what it would take to shepherd the Cardinals to the playoffs in 2004. But Dennis Green is a proven commodity, a guy who knows how to win, and who eventually will succeed in the desert. That eclipse which has hovered over The Valley of the Sun for too many NFL seasons will move on in the next couple years.

Among the several nicknames hung on Green by his Minnesota Vikings players, some of them behind his back but most of which he knew about anyway, was "The Sheriff." We think there's another "sh" handle, "The Shark," that might be even more apropos for him in his second head coaching incarnation. Why so? Because if a shark ever stops moving, it dies, and Green hasn't stopped moving and shaking since he touched down in Phoenix.

His hiring, an uncommon stroke of genius by the Bidwill family, has provided energy to a franchise that sorely needed some pizzazz. Green is a do-er, a man of decisiveness and of action, arguably the pluperfect panacea for a team that has been ailing for a long time. If it takes shaking things up a bit to somehow get the dead-in-the-water ship right again, well, he is probably the guy to have at the wheel.

Of course, make no mistake, Green is going to do most of the steering. That doesn't mean vice president Rod Graves won't get input, because clearly his vote will count, but Green has quickly become the face of the franchise. And it's a visage, and a vision as well, that commands respect and allows fans and players to believe something better lies ahead.

Said one veteran: "He's got some snake-oil salesman in him, that's for sure, but you can't help but buy into it. I mean, everything he talks about, he can back up with his résumé. He isn't going to sit still and just wait for something to happen. In a real short time here, he's demonstrated he'll make something happen."

How quickly Green can reverse the fortunes of a team that has made only one playoff appearance since relocating from St. Louis in 1988 remains to be seen. But any inertia won't result from a lack of effort and this week offered just the latest example of how Green figures to operate.

Despite the national spin, dumping the five veteran backups had nothing to do with the salary cap, since the Cardinals were already more than $7 million under the cap and the moves generated only modest savings. Instead, the departures were meant to create more opportunities for younger, hungrier players. In the Thompson case, Green displayed some pliability, deciding to afford the talented but temperamental linebacker another chance. And with Shelton, overweight and apparently underachieving in the offseason, Green showed that reputations and paychecks don't matter to him.

It was suggested that, with the demotion of Shelton at mid-week, Green was sending a message to the troops. But here's the thing about Green: He doesn't send messages in manners veiled or otherwise. What you see with Green is what you get. There is really little pretense and he doesn't reconcile patience very well. When he looks you in the eye, and tells you something, the words are typically stripped of all veneer.

"He's not a guy who blows smoke," said starting quarterback Josh McCown. "There is no hidden agenda. I think part of the reason he has been so quickly respected, beyond the fact he's been there and done it in the past, is that he shoots straight with you."

In the case of McCown, whose resume includes all of three starts, that meant not going after one of the highly regarded quarterbacks in the draft and not attempting to sign a guy like Kerry Collins. A man who believes in his "system," which he trumpets at just about every opportunity, Green went to the playoffs eight times in Minnesota and did so with six different quarterbacks. Not only does he believe in giving people a chance, he also believes in his own abilities to make things work, and it's hard to argue the track record.

Another example of his lack of subterfuge in matters football-related: Three months before the draft, while chatting at the commissioner's party two nights before the Super Bowl, Green all but assured a couple of reporters that if Larry Fitzgerald was granted eligibility, he was going to take him. While everyone surmised Green was bluffing, he never wavered in his conviction, even though the Cardinals had chosen wideouts in the first and second rounds in 2003.

"I never doubted him," Fitzgerald said.

Those who regard Arizona as one of the league's hinterlands, a place where no one will ever succeed, might be wise to adopt a similar stance. This week provided a capsulized insight into Dennis Green and how he works. In the big picture, though, it was just a Kodak moment. There are a lot more changes to come. And, eventually, those changes will dramatically alter the Arizona franchise for the better.