Raising Arizona

The NFL This Week: NFC picks to win

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Edgerrin James was frozen. Across the rope in front of him, endless rows of human cornstalks bent and swayed in his direction. The line of arms fought for position, twisting and stretching and thrusting countless offerings: a football, a jersey, a stack of glossy photos accompanied by a black Sharpie. Only one thing stopped him in his tracks as he made his way down the line.

It weighed maybe 25 pounds and was wearing diapers.

"Can he take a picture with you?" a woman asked, handing James her baby before he could answer. James shrugged, secured the child to his chest and flashed his gold-capped dental work for the camera. The woman snapped her picture and nudged her son.

"Look how shiny his teeth are, baby!"

A few seconds later, James walked off and shot a look over his shoulder.

"Crazy," he said.

Such were the Kodak moments James found himself before the Arizona Cardinals broke training camp last week. He shook hands. He posed for pictures. And no, it wasn't exactly an anomaly to have the occasional infant in a Cardinals onesie handed to him. The man is living a politician's life. He's the new, can't-miss candidate – the face of a hopeful campaign that's ready to change the team's longstanding miscues in the backfield.

"I've got everything I ever wanted right now," James said with an air of happiness not often seen in his final days with the Indianapolis Colts. "Everything you could want, I've got it right here – in Arizona."

James paused for a second and then floated on everyone's mind.

"Who would have thought that?" he said.

A year ago, not many.

For a guy whose Super Bowl window was wide open with the Colts, and who was playing in one of the league's most prolific offenses, James didn't seem all that wanting in his previous locale. He touched the ball an average of 27 times a game last season, rushed for over 1,500 yards for the second straight year and tied his career high with 13 rushing touchdowns. He was named to his fourth Pro Bowl and enjoyed the most regular-season victories in any one season of his NFL career. And lest anyone forget, had it not been for a Ben Roethlisberger tackle in the playoffs, he might be wearing a Super Bowl ring.

Yet there was James, clad in Cardinals white last week, chatting up some of his postseason-deprived teammates about keeping the proper pad level and driving the line of scrimmage forward. He's more than happy to sell his new surroundings – having a team with so much untapped potential, being in a warm-weather city, basking in the glow of being the centerpiece instead of being one third of Indianapolis' Holy Trinity with Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison.

James is reveling in all of these things, along with the $14.75 million he'll receive this season as part of the four-year, $30 million free-agent deal he signed in March. But skepticism abounds, with James stepping behind an offensive line beset by injuries and having gone virtually unchanged after posting the league's worst rushing offense. Also, he's working with a quarterback in Kurt Warner who has averaged six starts a year since 2001, and a team that has perennially scraped the barnacles off the bottom of the NFC.

"You know, people have every right to feel the way they want to feel," James said. "Look at history. It has shown that the Arizona Cardinals haven't done much."

Particularly at running back, where Arizona has had only one 1,000-yard rusher in the last 10 seasons (Adrian Murrell in 1998). In that span, the franchise averaged 10 losses a year and rolled out an unflattering cast of running backs, ranging from the mediocre (Marcel Shipp and Michael Pittman) to the over-the-hill variety (Emmitt Smith). Even Thomas Jones, who rushed for 1,335 and nine touchdowns for the Chicago Bears last season, spent his first three years in the NFL looking like a bust as a Cardinals running back.

And while that doesn't bare much significance on James' future, it at least casts an ominous shadow for a player who likely has about three to four prime seasons left in his career. How he'll spend those years should be rooted in Arizona's other major offseason acquisition – offensive line coach Steve Loney.

After coaching the Vikings' O-line from 2002 to 2004, Loney took the coordinating reins from Scott Linehan last season and did an admirable job the second half of 2006 with a line that had lost emotional epicenter Matt Birk. Now the Cardinals are hoping Loney can mend an offensive line that suffered its own spate of injuries in 2005 while also losing confidence and tuning out former line coach Everett Lindsay.

Even with James, the success or failure of Arizona's line may ultimately fall on Loney, who has been slowly trying to rebuild the unit's mental state.

"When I got here, they were beat down. And [when that] happens, that stuff kind of snowballs," Loney said. "As they got beat down, I'm sure at times they were receiving criticism that they didn't deserve. Then, rather than being accountable for the mistakes they did commit, I think some of them started pointing the finger, deflecting anything they could."

Without a doubt, last season's biggest sore spot was the ineffectual running game, which sputtered despite the addition of second-round pick J.J. Arrington. Paired with Shipp, Arrington struggled early with injuries and never looked capable of being the featured back. Ultimately, the failure left a residue on Arrington, the offensive line and Lindsay, who ultimately took the fall.

Loney is facing injury issues, too. Right tackle Oliver Ross, who missed four games last season, is expected to be out until Week 2 with a torn meniscus in his right knee, and starting center Alex Stepanovich, who missed seven games in '05, left Saturday night's 30-3 preseason loss to New England with an undisclosed chest injury.

"Part of last year's problems, we didn't have Stepanovich, we didn't have [guard Reggie] Wells, we didn't have Ross through a lot of last year and we ended up playing a lot of guys who really weren't good enough to be playing," coach Dennis Green said. "I think it showed. In pass protection, I think you can do that. You can pass guys off and figure things out. But in run blocking, it takes a lot of guys working together for a long time."

The clock is ticking in Arizona. With Ross out, Loney will have spent the balance of the preseason with a backup tackle on the right side. And with James getting so little preseason work – four carries for three yards in two games thus far – nobody can be certain how far the line has progressed with its new running back.

"We've got guys that are hungry, and that's the most important thing," James said. "But it's one thing to do it in practice. I can't tell you who is going to do what this season because I judge players over time, not just one, two or three weeks of training camp. Do I think the line is going to be OK? Yeah. But we don't need to be getting ahead of ourselves.

"It's the big question, and it's not going to be answered overnight."