Arizona Cardinals' offensive line coming together around Kyler Murray
The Arizona Cardinals offensive line has been bonding with each other and with quarterback Kyler Murray.
Cardinals fans, via the team's social media posts, have already seen members of the O-line together with Murray at a recent Arizona Diamondbacks game. Before that, Murray invited several teammates to Norman, Oklahoma, where Murray played college football and baseball at Oklahoma University, and offensive lineman Will Hernandez and Paris Johnson Jr. were part of the group that made the trip.
Heading into the rest of the offseason with Murray fully healthy and on track to start the regular season, the Cardinals have lost an important piece from last year's offensive line in former left tackle D.J. Humphries. But there is some continuity with last year's rookie starter Johnson moving from right tackle to left tackle (as announced by head coach Jonathan Gannon). Hernandez is back at right guard after making all 17 starts in 2023 and Hjalte Froholdt returns at center after all 17 games there in 2023.
"It's electrifying, everybody's motivated, that's our guy," Hernandez said of having Murray in workouts. "We all know that the standard automatically raises when he comes in."
Versatility and change
The Cardinals as a whole on the offensive line are loaded with players who can play guard and tackle and even center for a few. It's right in line with what the coaching staff values in putting together the roster.
Hernandez said he's comfortable at either left guard or right, but he is remaining on the right side for now with new arrival Jonah Williams working at right tackle.
Williams comes over from the Cincinnati Bengals, where he started all 59 games he played in four seasons.
"We'll start there and see where it goes," Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said.
The only position left to address is left guard, where there could be a competition that includes three players who started there last season — Elijah Wilkinson, Carter O'Donnell and Trystan Colón. Wilkinson started the final three games of 2023 at left guard.
"Second year in the system, so the guys that are coming back I think feel a lot more comfortable with what we're trying to get done," Gannon said. "We made a few adjustments by how we want to do things up there, certain run and pass things, techniques, different calls. And I think the competition is high in there. The couple of guys that we added are going to add to that room and that competition."
Froholdt said all the returning linemen are more comfortable with the offensive playbook.
"We're way further ahead than where we were at this point last season," Froholdt said.
An impressive newcomer
Williams isn't the only proven veteran the Cardinals added to the offensive line. Evan Brown started 16 games with the Seattle Seahawks last season and has been in the NFL since 2019.
"He's a very cerebral guy," Froholdt said of Brown. "The standard is much higher now. You exactly what you need to do. .... There's a lot at stake here and we want to be perfect."
Brown and Williams have also turned heads in the weight room, another key component of offseason work.
"The momentum right now is guys want to get after it," Froholdt said.
Preseason schedule set
The Cardinals' three-game preseason schedule now has dates and starting times for the games.
Arizona hosts the New Orleans Saints at 5 p.m. local time, Saturday, Aug. 10 at State Farm Stadium in the preseason opener. On Aug. 17 after joint practices with the Indianapolis Colts, Arizona plays the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium at 4 p.m. Phoenix time.
The final preseason game is on Aug. 25 against the Denver Broncos, a nationally televised game on CBS at 1:30 Phoenix time from Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals embracing any position asked to play on O-line
