Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: This week's guest is Cardinal's Ring of Honor safety Adrian
Speaker 1: Wilson A dub is currently the vice president of Pro
Speaker 1: Scouting for the Arizona Cardinals, and he has a big
Speaker 1: role in the front office. Most Cardinal fans, though, know
Speaker 1: of Adrian as a great player. Five times in the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, three time All Pro, twelve total years with
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals, twenty seven interceptions, more than twenty five sacks,
Speaker 1: and four defensive touchdowns. Part of the two eighteen that
Speaker 1: went to the Super Bowl, part of the team the
Speaker 1: following year that went back to the playoffs and beat
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers. Inducted into the Ring of Honor.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned in part of the Personnel Department since
Speaker 1: twenty fifty. We talked with Adrian about how he got
Speaker 1: started in this business, what his role is now with
Speaker 1: the organization. We also live some of his favorite moments
Speaker 1: playing for the Arizona Cardinals, including when he played with
Speaker 1: the late Pat Tillman and the late Quam Lasseter. We'll
Speaker 1: also talk about this year's Arizona Cardinals and how they
Speaker 1: compare to that twenty eighteen that went to Super Bowl
Speaker 1: forty three. I think we have a lot of the
Speaker 1: same characteristics in terms of young guys that got drafted
Speaker 1: here that are, you know, kind of coming into our
Speaker 1: own now. To me, we have a franchise quarterback and
Speaker 1: Carlin Murray looking back on those championship years that we
Speaker 1: had No. Eight, No nine, we want a division. I
Speaker 1: think that you know, it's very similar. We are presented
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Speaker 1: Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next
Speaker 1: step time out for our conversation with Adrian Wilson. So
Speaker 1: I get a ton of stuff I want to cover
Speaker 1: with you, man, but let's start with talking about this team.
Speaker 1: After the wins Sunday in Dallas, how do you feel
Speaker 1: Do you feel confident that this team is back to
Speaker 1: what we saw in September and October or do you
Speaker 1: still need to see more? That's a loaded question. I'm
Speaker 1: relieved to get back, you know, to winning, getting back
Speaker 1: to kind of how we knew we could play football,
Speaker 1: you know, the past three weeks half being tough, just
Speaker 1: you know, going through a losing streak, you know, knowing
Speaker 1: that we were better than than what we were putting
Speaker 1: on the field, you know, just just really going out
Speaker 1: there and doubling down on some of the things they
Speaker 1: needed to do in terms of, you know, not turning
Speaker 1: the ball over, the penalties and just making clutch plays.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that, you know, that game Sunday
Speaker 1: really put everything in perspective in terms of what we
Speaker 1: were doing in the first part of the season. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to that. Because the Cardinals get off to
Speaker 1: a seven and those start and a lot of people
Speaker 1: nationally that still weren't believing, they still didn't buy in.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's because a lot of people didn't really
Speaker 1: see a lot of the games until the Thursday night
Speaker 1: game against Green Bay. What were some of the things
Speaker 1: early on that you look at and point to and say,
Speaker 1: you know, that's because you've been on great teams. That's
Speaker 1: what a championship team looks like. Well, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the consistency of of going on the road and winning
Speaker 1: on the road, you know, and the style of how
Speaker 1: we were winning. I think that you know, when teams
Speaker 1: look at us, you know, they look at Kyler, they
Speaker 1: look at you know, Cliff, they look at you know,
Speaker 1: the air raid kind of persona behind the offense, and
Speaker 1: that's not really you know, how our team has built.
Speaker 1: Our team is built to be a physical team. And really,
Speaker 1: you know, that's kind of what we've always hung our
Speaker 1: hat on. Was was that element of our game. I
Speaker 1: like how you said that because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people would not assume that when you say built
Speaker 1: to be a physical team. I know James Connor has
Speaker 1: missed the last couple of games. Hopefully it's back this week,
Speaker 1: if not for the playoffs. When you guys decided to
Speaker 1: bring him in, how much of what you said before
Speaker 1: about being a physical team, how much were you thinking
Speaker 1: about James Connor? It was it was all we thought about. Um.
Speaker 1: I think going into the off season when me and
Speaker 1: Steve sat down, we really you know, sat down and
Speaker 1: really wanted to talk about the guys that we were
Speaker 1: bringing in, you know, what type of people were wanted
Speaker 1: to bring into the building, and whether it was you know,
Speaker 1: Rodney Hudson, whether it was J. J. Watt Um, whether
Speaker 1: it was being able to add Zavian Collins to the
Speaker 1: Mets throughout the draft Um, the defensive line rotation that
Speaker 1: we've had over the past two years, was being able
Speaker 1: to add that defensive line. You know, we wanted to
Speaker 1: be stronger down the middle, and James into that equation
Speaker 1: and then getting Rodney, I think it gave us a
Speaker 1: pretty solid foundation in terms of what we wanted to
Speaker 1: be offensively, in terms of just being the physical football team.
Speaker 1: I want to get back to this team in the season.
Speaker 1: But you talked about sitting down with Steve. You're you're
Speaker 1: heavily in involved in all the decisions here with the
Speaker 1: Cardinals as the vice president of Pro Personnel. And I'm
Speaker 1: curious because there are a lot of players, maybe more
Speaker 1: so in the NBA than the NFL, of your stature,
Speaker 1: guys that are borderline Hall of famers. I mean, you
Speaker 1: are in the Cardinals Ring of Honor. They're only I
Speaker 1: want to get into the Hall of Fame because it's
Speaker 1: only I think six or seven true safeties in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. I've always felt, maybe a little biased
Speaker 1: that you should be in, and I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that a little bit later. But you were a
Speaker 1: great player who made a lot of money, and a
Speaker 1: lot of guys at your stature they want to go
Speaker 1: right to be in a GM or right to be
Speaker 1: in a head coach. They're not willing to be an assistant,
Speaker 1: sent on a bench or get into scouting and travel
Speaker 1: and scout. But you were willing to do that seven
Speaker 1: years ago. Why I don't know. You know, I think
Speaker 1: I love new challenges. I think that, you know, whenever
Speaker 1: I got done planning, I did kind of take a
Speaker 1: step back, and you know, I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out what I wanted to do. At first, I
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be coaching. I was over
Speaker 1: at the high school up my sons high school a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, just kind of going through the
Speaker 1: process of, you know, what I wanted to do next,
Speaker 1: and m BA and Steve kind of gave me the
Speaker 1: opportunity to come over here that summer and go through
Speaker 1: both sides of it in terms of the coaching side
Speaker 1: and the personnel side. So I ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: falling in love more with the personnel side of it
Speaker 1: all because I had just had my last daughter and
Speaker 1: she was home and I wanted to kind of be
Speaker 1: home and I wanted to be around that whole process
Speaker 1: because really, you know, throughout my whole playing career, we
Speaker 1: had kids and I was never there. So, um, I
Speaker 1: wanted to be home, and you know, I wanted to
Speaker 1: have a set you know, a set schedule where I
Speaker 1: can kind of be there for them. And my first
Speaker 1: year in personnel, I didn't. I didn't put one report
Speaker 1: into the system, not one report. I you know, I
Speaker 1: was picking guys up from the airport, getting their bags
Speaker 1: and stuff from baggage claim, you know, and dropping them
Speaker 1: off at physical runs. You know, I did all the
Speaker 1: grunting work, you know, in terms of, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of what our scouting assistants do now, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think it kind of gave me a foundation of
Speaker 1: how inglorious the job is. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not a job where you get a
Speaker 1: lot of fanfare and people don't really understand, you know,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, how much it takes to you know,
Speaker 1: the day to day operations of kind of what we
Speaker 1: do here. I love that story, and I'm not surprised
Speaker 1: knowing you. Look, you've always I'm known you for almost
Speaker 1: two decades. You've always been a confident guy, but you've
Speaker 1: always been humble and you're always very respectful of other
Speaker 1: people's positions in the organization. I know you developed when
Speaker 1: you're playing a really good friendship with Chris Melbourne as
Speaker 1: part of the public relations staff, and you're always great
Speaker 1: in taking care of him because of how he took
Speaker 1: care of you. You always respectful of my job. I
Speaker 1: got him married twice, by the way, you twice you
Speaker 1: were the best man twice. No, I got him married twice.
Speaker 1: So you introduced him, Zach, I got him. Know that,
Speaker 1: all right, put that, let's put that on the ballot.
Speaker 1: But I said that in the Hall of Fame. It's
Speaker 1: part of the resume. But so the fact that you're
Speaker 1: humble enough to accept that position, well, why do you
Speaker 1: think that is? Do you think part of that is? Because?
Speaker 1: I mean, you weren't the highest recruited guy coming out
Speaker 1: of high school. You were a third round pick. You
Speaker 1: weren't a top ten pick. I mean, people look back,
Speaker 1: I'm sure and look at the draft and say, yeah,
Speaker 1: Adrean Wilson should have been a top ten pick, but
Speaker 1: you weren't. Do you think that's one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why it was easy for you to accept that role
Speaker 1: of picking guys up from the airport when you've been
Speaker 1: you know, had the career that you had. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I didn't. You know, I'm just throughout my whole life,
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of just been dedicated and loyal
Speaker 1: to whatever process I'm gonna be a part of. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not the type of guy that is
Speaker 1: willing to, you know, skip a step to get ahead
Speaker 1: of somebody else, regardless of you know, kind of who
Speaker 1: I am and what I did on the football field.
Speaker 1: I've always throughout my whole life, I've always especially when
Speaker 1: I was done planning, I wanted that part of my
Speaker 1: career to be over with in terms of my playing career,
Speaker 1: and then once I kind of get into my second career,
Speaker 1: I didn't want my football life to have any impact
Speaker 1: on the move that I was going to make going forward,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to learn every single step along the way.
Speaker 1: You know, It's kind of been my whole process, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of stay dedicated and loyal to the process. You know,
Speaker 1: don't don't skip a step to try to get ahead
Speaker 1: of somebody else who may deserve it more than you
Speaker 1: do at that time. So take me from that first
Speaker 1: year when basically you're a runner what we call in
Speaker 1: our business, where you go and you pick people up
Speaker 1: or you go get coffee for people, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1: What was the next step for you in the process
Speaker 1: of getting to where you are now? The next up,
Speaker 1: you know, my second between my second and third year,
Speaker 1: probably you know, more into that third year, I ended
Speaker 1: up getting around twenty to twenty five schools around the country,
Speaker 1: going and you know, getting background on certain college guys,
Speaker 1: of some of the guys some of the schools that
Speaker 1: we had, whether it's the Southeast, you know, out west,
Speaker 1: you know, in the East. So I was basically as
Speaker 1: a quasi national scout for US, just picking up some
Speaker 1: schools that either drew or some of the guys couldn't
Speaker 1: get tom and alone. That way, I was doing pro
Speaker 1: work as well, so I was doing advanced work at
Speaker 1: the same time while I was doing my college job,
Speaker 1: and you know, just kind of been on the road
Speaker 1: a lot, getting an experience of being out there getting
Speaker 1: get in the background, just just being able to kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, spare my network of people that I can
Speaker 1: go and get information for. And I did that for
Speaker 1: probably about a year and a half before they ended
Speaker 1: up moving me in house. So as the vice president
Speaker 1: of Pro Scouting, I know that's your title, but you're
Speaker 1: doing so much more. So give the fans listening a
Speaker 1: sense of your daily duties, or maybe not just your
Speaker 1: daily duties. What do you do over the course of
Speaker 1: a year in terms of trying to help the organization
Speaker 1: to get better. Yeah, you know, it really starts, you know,
Speaker 1: for me and you know July in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: just being able to see what our roster kind of
Speaker 1: looks like overall based off of what last year was.
Speaker 1: So going into this offseason going into July, you know,
Speaker 1: fredencies over with the draft is over. I'm already ahead
Speaker 1: to the next year in terms of guys that are
Speaker 1: going to be coming up in the draft next year
Speaker 1: and then free agents that are coming up next year
Speaker 1: that are already playing in the league. So my job
Speaker 1: description is a year long kind of process. M Steve
Speaker 1: basically will you know he'll call me in June July,
Speaker 1: you know, when everybody's in, you know, on vacation and stuff,
Speaker 1: and he'll ask me to look at guys. I always
Speaker 1: have to be ready to you know, have a report
Speaker 1: ready for him, regardless of you know, the time to place.
Speaker 1: UM and just kind of stay one step ahead of
Speaker 1: Steve in terms of our roster makeup and just kind
Speaker 1: of where we are overall in the building in terms
Speaker 1: of the college side and the pro side. So you
Speaker 1: talked a bunch about Steve. Come. You two go way back.
Speaker 1: Obviously you both played at NC State. Do you remember
Speaker 1: the first time that you met Steve. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: it was ninety seven when we first met. That was
Speaker 1: he was an assistant coach in NC State. Once I
Speaker 1: first got there, I got there and I got there
Speaker 1: in ninety eight. My first year was in ninety eight,
Speaker 1: but I went in ninety seven to to visit. Um
Speaker 1: I was graduating high school early. UM. So I enrolled
Speaker 1: at NC State in the spring of ninety eight. UM
Speaker 1: So I ended up you know, going down there, you know,
Speaker 1: training really and going to you know, some of my
Speaker 1: classes as a freshman. UM. We ended up you know,
Speaker 1: really having a great relationship throughout that throughout that three
Speaker 1: to four month time and frame before he ended up
Speaker 1: you know, leaving and coming here and being a scout here. Um,
Speaker 1: and we just kind of kept in touch and um,
Speaker 1: you know, it kind of started off with you know,
Speaker 1: just weight room stuff, a little bit of you know,
Speaker 1: bands are going back and forth, and the relationship just
Speaker 1: kind of grew, you know, throughout time. Um, I would
Speaker 1: ask him just you know, just simple things just about
Speaker 1: the campus because I didn't know, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: know anything about the Rolly area and he was there
Speaker 1: for a long time. Um, so places to eat and
Speaker 1: things like that. And again, the relationship just grew over time.
Speaker 1: He drafts you, he's part of the scouting staff that
Speaker 1: drafts you here, and twenty years later, you guys are
Speaker 1: still working together. Do you think the relationship works at
Speaker 1: this level for him being the GM and the role
Speaker 1: that you're in because you'll shoot him straight? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you think that that's one of the reasons why?
Speaker 1: Because you guys know each other so well that if
Speaker 1: he asks you about a certain player or what you
Speaker 1: think the team should do, you're not gonna just tell
Speaker 1: him what he wants to hear. Yeah, I'm definitely not
Speaker 1: gonna bush him like, that's not I don't know if
Speaker 1: I can say that. It's our podcast, Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: So I don't like like, I don't like, I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that to him because I know
Speaker 1: how important a job is to him. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, like I want, like I want us to
Speaker 1: be successful too, Like I don't want to. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be a part of a team where I'm
Speaker 1: not giving everything at all in terms of my evaluation,
Speaker 1: you know, me being able to give Steve the right
Speaker 1: information Steve or Michael. You know, if Michael asked me
Speaker 1: a question, like I'm gonna be honest with him and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not gonna, you know, cut the corner and
Speaker 1: try to tell him something that I think that he
Speaker 1: wants to hear, Like I'm not, I'm not here for that.
Speaker 1: What's been one of the toughest conversations that you and
Speaker 1: Steve have had about a particular player or a decision
Speaker 1: that's been made here that you had a big impact
Speaker 1: on this organization because either a you decided to go
Speaker 1: ahead and make a particular move or because you didn't
Speaker 1: go ahead and pull the trigger on a move. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's been it's been a year after year
Speaker 1: after year. I think the past three years, whether it
Speaker 1: was us, you know, acquiring DeAndre Hopkins and being able
Speaker 1: to you know, end up giving up a pick um
Speaker 1: to get DeAndre, whether it was you know, last year
Speaker 1: at Rodney Hudson. I remember me and VJ was at
Speaker 1: George's protae and um, they ended up putting out that
Speaker 1: you know, Rodney was going to get released. And the
Speaker 1: whole dynamics of being able to go acquire Rodney and
Speaker 1: what it took to go acquire Rodney was it the
Speaker 1: right move? And I think, you know, any time you
Speaker 1: you know, are in a position where you can get
Speaker 1: the team better, regardless of you know, the assets that
Speaker 1: you have to give up, I think you have to
Speaker 1: be able to take a chance on that, on that player.
Speaker 1: But if I didn't have the evaluation, and if I
Speaker 1: didn't look at the guy way ahead of time, and
Speaker 1: Steve would have asked me that, then I would have
Speaker 1: man just telling him something that I didn't know. And
Speaker 1: that was That's That's the type of relationship that we
Speaker 1: have is he knows that I'm gonna do the work,
Speaker 1: and he knows that I'm gonna be prepared with whatever
Speaker 1: question that you asked me, because nine times out of
Speaker 1: tend I've already seen the tape. So I think that
Speaker 1: he trusts me with my opinion when it comes to
Speaker 1: us making those types of decisions on players. The decision
Speaker 1: to draft Kyler Murray, I think ten years from now
Speaker 1: people are talking about it now, but ten years from now,
Speaker 1: twenty years from now, it's probably going to be commonplace.
Speaker 1: But you guys were the first to draft a quarterback
Speaker 1: in the first round the year after you draft a
Speaker 1: quarterback in the first round. Take me through that. What
Speaker 1: you recall about making that decision to draft Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: after you had drafted Josh Rosen the previous year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that was a total organization move in terms
Speaker 1: of Michael and Steve sitting down and realizing that A,
Speaker 1: we need to make a change. B it's this quarterback
Speaker 1: the right one. He is he the right fit for
Speaker 1: us moving forward in terms of what our what our
Speaker 1: future holds for the organization. And you know, both those
Speaker 1: answers were, yes, we didn't need to make a change,
Speaker 1: and yes, Kyler murb was going to be the guy.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think you have to be willing
Speaker 1: to admit that you made a mistake. And I think
Speaker 1: that once once we ended up realizing that we did
Speaker 1: do that, then you know, we were all out full
Speaker 1: goal to try to make sure that we can correct
Speaker 1: that mistake. He's one rookie of the year. He's going
Speaker 1: to the Pro Bowl for the second time. He's led
Speaker 1: a team to the playoffs here in year three. He
Speaker 1: obviously has room to grow. We've talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: at age twenty four, still needing to mature. What are
Speaker 1: some of the steps though, that are tangible that you've
Speaker 1: seen him make on the field, in the locker room,
Speaker 1: off the field, that gives you confidence that he's headed
Speaker 1: in the right direction to lead this team to the championship. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think people really have to understand, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: he's twenty four years old. You know, I can remember
Speaker 1: when I was twenty four years old and coming here.
Speaker 1: When I got here, I was twenty years old, So
Speaker 1: I can understand kind of the maturation that it takes,
Speaker 1: you know, to become a leader, to be able to
Speaker 1: you know, to double down on your preparation, you know,
Speaker 1: just some of the small things that it takes to
Speaker 1: be a good player. Kyler probably did those things in
Speaker 1: high school the way that you know, the way that
Speaker 1: high schools played now as opposed to when I was playing.
Speaker 1: I think now with him, the leadership on the practice
Speaker 1: field been able to hold guys accountable and guys don't
Speaker 1: get pissed that he's yelling at him because of the
Speaker 1: way that he leads, you know, he he probably doesn't
Speaker 1: lead like you know, Aaron Rodgers or you know somebody
Speaker 1: else that everybody sees on tv UM. He leads differently.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a he's a different type of quarterback.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, everybody in this locker
Speaker 1: room has embraced, you know, kind of who he is
Speaker 1: as a person collectively. You know, he's not a guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna be walking around here smiling. You know. I
Speaker 1: was like that, you know, so you know, it's just
Speaker 1: one of those things where you know, the team has to,
Speaker 1: you know, understand the type of leader that he is.
Speaker 1: I think everybody rallies behind him and he's going to
Speaker 1: continue to mature and he's gonna continue to grow for
Speaker 1: us and win football games for us. You still don't
Speaker 1: have a smile on your face me sometimes, I mean
Speaker 1: I'm more happier now than what I was when I
Speaker 1: was playing. I can say that. But see, man, I
Speaker 1: was never afraid of you because I knew you had
Speaker 1: a big heart. But there are a lot of guys
Speaker 1: like you're you have a presence, You're an intimidating guy.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how much interaction do you have with players
Speaker 1: and like how do they when they see you, and
Speaker 1: do you challenge guys talk to them about, hey, you
Speaker 1: need to do this better, or hey you need to
Speaker 1: change this, you need to do this here if you
Speaker 1: really want to be great, or you're not going to
Speaker 1: be here. I'm don't mean to put words in you,
Speaker 1: Like what do you say, what kind of conversations you
Speaker 1: have with players? Yeah, this is my this is my
Speaker 1: you know, seventh year in the front office, but this
Speaker 1: is my twenty second, twenty third year you know, kind
Speaker 1: of in this organization. So you know, just being able
Speaker 1: to kind of have the free will to go around
Speaker 1: and be who I am. Um, that has always you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's always been important for Michael and Steve
Speaker 1: to kind of give me that that full rain, to say, hey,
Speaker 1: we're not putting rains on you. You know, you can
Speaker 1: do whatever and say whatever you want to these players.
Speaker 1: And I've you know, I've kind of ran with that
Speaker 1: in terms of it's not a front office versus players thing.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying that we're all in this together.
Speaker 1: We all want to see each other succeed. And sometimes
Speaker 1: it takes having hard conversations with guys to you know,
Speaker 1: to to to get them to play at their best
Speaker 1: or what we think is their best, and you know,
Speaker 1: for God to continue to grow, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: so much about the football field, it's about maturing you know,
Speaker 1: in the community, um, you know, just doing stuff on
Speaker 1: a day to day basis that they may not be
Speaker 1: willing to think that they aren't doing. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of guys think that they're doing everything right and
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not. It's not enough and sometimes they need
Speaker 1: God to tell them that it's not enough. And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: like I'm that guy. So you know, I've had hard
Speaker 1: conversations with these guys for quite some time. Now. Is
Speaker 1: there a particular and you don't have to name a player,
Speaker 1: but there's there a particular incident or a conversation and
Speaker 1: you can share that may have been uncomfortable for the
Speaker 1: other person. Yeah, I mean, you know it was. It
Speaker 1: was a player here a couple of years ago, and um,
Speaker 1: we had we had an issue here, um in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, him, him wanting to be you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit different than what everybody else was, you know,
Speaker 1: wearing out on a practice field. Um, that player in
Speaker 1: it up going to get a different jersey. I ended
Speaker 1: up finding out about it. I went down to his
Speaker 1: locker room, I took the jersey out of his locker.
Speaker 1: Then I proceeded to go outside, and then I told him,
Speaker 1: if you want the jersey, come take it from him,
Speaker 1: and he didn't. So, you know, it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things where it's not about
Speaker 1: an individual person, you know. And that's that's what you know.
Speaker 1: When I got here, you know, Ronald McKinnon, Um, a
Speaker 1: lot of these older veteran guys, Rod Frederickson, Kwanby Lasseter,
Speaker 1: Corey Javis, you know a lot of the older veteran guys,
Speaker 1: you know, like I looked up to those guys, and
Speaker 1: those guys did it the right way, even though we
Speaker 1: weren't a talented team. Um, you know, I came in
Speaker 1: with a bunch of veteran guys that did it the
Speaker 1: right way, and you know, that's kind of what I
Speaker 1: want us to be. I wanted us to be a
Speaker 1: team to do it the right way. Along those lines,
Speaker 1: what do you recall from that first year with Pat Tillman.
Speaker 1: I recall that, you know, it wasn't easy for me
Speaker 1: because you know, he was you know, he was Pat Chilman,
Speaker 1: and he was all everything, you know, Arizona State, being
Speaker 1: drafted here me knowing that, you know, I got drafted
Speaker 1: the third round. I came to camp late, my contract
Speaker 1: wasn't done. I got here late. They ragged on me
Speaker 1: so much, you know, my first couple of weeks that
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't know if anybody liked me, So
Speaker 1: I didn't you know, I didn't. I didn't care at
Speaker 1: the time. But at the same time, like it kind
Speaker 1: of got me going in the sense of, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of my main streak and kind of like where
Speaker 1: where that came from. It came from, you know, me
Speaker 1: coming in late, me knowing that, hey, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to like earn my keep here, and you know, Pat
Speaker 1: was probably one of the first ones that that really
Speaker 1: sat me down, and you know, kind of taught me
Speaker 1: the inner workings of a playbook and how you study
Speaker 1: and how you take notes and you know, just those
Speaker 1: sorts of things. And you know, he's spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with me, you know, just my first year
Speaker 1: and just just you know, learning how to do a
Speaker 1: lot of things that I didn't know, you know, coming
Speaker 1: into into the league. Can you talk about your relationship
Speaker 1: with Kwami last or another former cardinal that was taken
Speaker 1: from us too soon? Yeah, Um, you know when I
Speaker 1: first you know again, when I first got here, Um,
Speaker 1: Kwami and Pat, both those guys were starting here. And
Speaker 1: you know, just being in the room with with both
Speaker 1: those guys, knowing that you know, they played so much football,
Speaker 1: and just being able to kind of be a sponge
Speaker 1: you know in the meeting rooms. But then outside of
Speaker 1: the meeting rooms, I gravitated more towards Kwami in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, the off the field stuff, in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, being being with his family, UM, seeing
Speaker 1: what type of dad that he was, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: how he interacted with people outside of just football. You
Speaker 1: know that. I think those were things that um impressed
Speaker 1: me in the most about him is the type of
Speaker 1: person that he was the type of father that he was,
Speaker 1: and you know, those are the things that I missed
Speaker 1: about him most because he would come over, you know,
Speaker 1: during the holidays, we would play cards, and you know,
Speaker 1: he would talk to my dad, talk to my mom.
Speaker 1: You know, it was just like a normal, you know,
Speaker 1: regular conversation. And you know, those are probably the things
Speaker 1: that I missed most about him. Did Kwami always want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about his contract? Because I remember
Speaker 1: my first year here was two thousand and two and
Speaker 1: I hosted the Big Red Rage with Kwami and it
Speaker 1: was the two of us. It was a Jellies, a
Speaker 1: place called Jellies. First of all, nobody we would like
Speaker 1: sit at this table, and I think there are people
Speaker 1: that looked at us like what are these guys doing
Speaker 1: over there? There was no fanfare, there wasn't a big stage.
Speaker 1: It was just the two of us, and all Kwami
Speaker 1: ever want to do with me was talking about his contract.
Speaker 1: My first I don't know if it's my first year
Speaker 1: of my second year when Kwamy got franchise, I wanted
Speaker 1: to say, and he ended up like he was he was.
Speaker 1: I remember in the meeting room because I sat beside
Speaker 1: him and he had turned around and looked at me.
Speaker 1: He was like, don't you ever let them? Do you
Speaker 1: like this? I was like, like, once, you're about to
Speaker 1: make three million dollars. I'm like, that's the most one
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my life. Right, He's like pissed
Speaker 1: about it. So I'm like, man, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was like, that was my first like real instance of
Speaker 1: seeing like a veteran, you know, getting franchise Like that
Speaker 1: was the first time me actually like seeing it and
Speaker 1: seeing how pissed he was about it. I was like,
Speaker 1: you about to get a lot of freaking money. You
Speaker 1: pissed about that, and then about five years later you
Speaker 1: were making a lot more than two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: You guys go to the Super Bowl. I was in
Speaker 1: Orlando doing bowl games last week, and because John Madden
Speaker 1: had passed away, John and I have the same agent,
Speaker 1: Sandy Montag, and I heard that the game was going
Speaker 1: to be on because John Madden's last broadcast. So I
Speaker 1: just got done doing Clemson's bowl game and We're sitting
Speaker 1: at a restaurant after in the games on, so I'm
Speaker 1: forced to watch it, which I really don't want to,
Speaker 1: but it was Madden's last game, so I'm watching it,
Speaker 1: and I knew how many great players they were there
Speaker 1: were on the Cardinals that year, but it seems like
Speaker 1: all everybody talks about as well nine and seven didn't have,
Speaker 1: you know, a great season and got hot, but there
Speaker 1: there were some talent on this team and a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that made multiple or Pro Bowls. What do
Speaker 1: you is there like a particular moment that stands out
Speaker 1: above the others about that season or that run for
Speaker 1: you that you'll remember forever. Well, I just you know,
Speaker 1: I think that that team, in particular, especially on defense.
Speaker 1: You know, we had a bunch of guys that were,
Speaker 1: you know in their fourth, fifth, sixth year. You know
Speaker 1: that you know, either got drafted here or came here
Speaker 1: from another team that you know, we didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of experience in terms of winning, but the group
Speaker 1: was so close an age and I think that you know,
Speaker 1: we kind of grew up together throughout that year. And
Speaker 1: then to go back to your point, the following year,
Speaker 1: you know, we ended up going ten and six. You know,
Speaker 1: we ended up getting beat by New Orleans, but you know,
Speaker 1: just us being able to kind of grow together throughout
Speaker 1: that whether it was me and Carlos Me and Darnell
Speaker 1: Me and Atreill. You know, it was a lot of
Speaker 1: guys on that team. You know, an Quin, you know,
Speaker 1: a young Larry Fitzgerald. I mean, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of guys, sim Howtower was on that team, Reggie Wells,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of guys that got drafted here
Speaker 1: that we kind of grew up together in terms of
Speaker 1: going from a losing kind of franchise to now, you know,
Speaker 1: we ended up knowing what it suks to kind of win,
Speaker 1: and a lot of those guys ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: going to other places that ended up getting you know,
Speaker 1: paid a lot of money. But I just remember just
Speaker 1: those relationships. You know, we still have those relationships to
Speaker 1: this day. I went and saw American Underdog with my
Speaker 1: family last weekend. The Kurt Warner story, it's really good.
Speaker 1: It's it's very well done. Sports movies usually get messed up.
Speaker 1: I thought they did a really good job with it.
Speaker 1: And it's it's not about Kurt as a cardinal, but
Speaker 1: Zachary Levi, the actor, to me, like, and I know
Speaker 1: Kurt pretty well, Like it's Kurt. Like they did a
Speaker 1: really good job of showing how guys started to kind
Speaker 1: of believe in him and follow him. What do you
Speaker 1: remember about that about Kurt's persona, his presence that kind
Speaker 1: of brought everybody to get I thought he was tough as,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, I thought that his toughness
Speaker 1: far outweighed how smart he was, how accurate he was
Speaker 1: with the football. You know. I think his toughness identified
Speaker 1: with who we wanted to be as a as a team. UM.
Speaker 1: And I've always told Kurt this. He he was a
Speaker 1: lot tougher than what people gave him credit for. Um,
Speaker 1: even though he's you know, in the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: which is deserving. But his toughness and accountability, I think
Speaker 1: to this, to this organization, UM, kind of put us,
Speaker 1: you know, above probably where we should have been at
Speaker 1: that time. It gave us a kind of jump start
Speaker 1: and a boost, um to to really you know, going
Speaker 1: into you know Ba's era, you know, going into going
Speaker 1: into those eras after Kurt left here. UM, I think
Speaker 1: that really gave us some credibility, and it gave the
Speaker 1: organization a boost. So thirteen years later, you're in a
Speaker 1: different role in the organization. Obviously, how would you can
Speaker 1: pair of the twenty twenty one Arizona Cardinals to the
Speaker 1: twenty eight team that went to the Super Bowl. I
Speaker 1: think we have a lot of the same characteristics in
Speaker 1: terms of young guys that got drafted here that are,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of coming into their own now. To me,
Speaker 1: we have a franchise quarterback and Calin Murray. I think
Speaker 1: the defense is young. We have very young pieces. I
Speaker 1: think they're dynamic, and I think looking back on those
Speaker 1: championship years that we had in O. Eight No. Nine
Speaker 1: we won a division, I think that, you know, it's
Speaker 1: very similar in terms of the Pro Bowl type players
Speaker 1: that we have on this team and just how young
Speaker 1: the team is moving forward. It feels like this is sustainable.
Speaker 1: You talked, I'm glad you brought it up to the
Speaker 1: twenty nine team because at that point there hadn't been
Speaker 1: many teams that lost the Super Bowl and then went
Speaker 1: to the playoffs. The next year. You guys went to
Speaker 1: the playoffs, won a game, you lose in New Orleans
Speaker 1: to a team that you know had a juggernaut offense,
Speaker 1: ended up winning the Super Bowl. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: this if Tyler continues to play the ways playing and
Speaker 1: stays healthy, is this sustainable for a significant period of
Speaker 1: time made up. Do you think, yeah, because I think
Speaker 1: that we as an organization and and and I think
Speaker 1: the players downstairs feel like that we are good. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a totally different feeling than you know,
Speaker 1: back in oh eight, you know, when we were just
Speaker 1: getting to that point of getting good players in the door. Now,
Speaker 1: I think, as a whole organizationally, like, we know we're good,
Speaker 1: and we know that we have good people in the
Speaker 1: front office. We know we have good players downstairs. And
Speaker 1: now it's all about just continuing to add players into
Speaker 1: the mix, add the right type of people to the
Speaker 1: locker room downstairs. You know, I think there's a there's
Speaker 1: a certain addish that you know, yes, you can draft
Speaker 1: talented players, but they have to be the right type
Speaker 1: of person. You know, it has to be, you know,
Speaker 1: the type of person that you're trying to build your
Speaker 1: organization around. It has to be it has to be
Speaker 1: the right person. In your career, you had twenty seven interceptions,
Speaker 1: twenty five and a half sacks, four touchdowns. Those are
Speaker 1: great numbers. There are eighteen safeties in the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: six in the modern era. That are safeties, not safety
Speaker 1: slash corners. Although you did play corner some as well.
Speaker 1: Ronnie Lott, Rod Woodson, Brian Dawkins, Kenny Easley, who did
Speaker 1: not play very long. He had that one year he
Speaker 1: had ten picks. I think he only played seven years.
Speaker 1: John Lynch, who did not have as many sacks as
Speaker 1: you did. I think he may have had half the
Speaker 1: number of sacks you have, but he won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: And Ed Reid. Do you think you should be in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame? Yeah, I think there's an argument
Speaker 1: that can be made when you look at you know,
Speaker 1: Troy Polamalu, and you look at his numbers. If you're
Speaker 1: basing it just solely off of numbers, they're very comparable,
Speaker 1: even though mine are a bit better than his. You know,
Speaker 1: he played on number one defense is pretty much his
Speaker 1: whole career. When I look at my career and I
Speaker 1: look at where it started to where it ended, the
Speaker 1: type of people that we ended up getting into the
Speaker 1: building in terms of guys on defense, it took us
Speaker 1: a while to get to that point where we had
Speaker 1: good players. And you know, playing in Arizona, you don't
Speaker 1: really get a lot of the fanfare and you don't
Speaker 1: get the recognition that you probably deserve. You know, I
Speaker 1: probably missed out on three or four you know, Pro Bowls,
Speaker 1: just based off of where I played at. But in
Speaker 1: terms of changing the way that the safety position was played,
Speaker 1: I think I was a big part of that in
Speaker 1: terms of how the modern days safety is deployed now.
Speaker 1: But again, you know, I don't have a vote. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have a vote. It's just one of those
Speaker 1: things where you know, I think, you know, people like
Speaker 1: Jim Trotter, people that you know look at the game
Speaker 1: every single Sunday will understand the type impact that I
Speaker 1: had every Sunday that I played. I think if the
Speaker 1: Cardinals win Super Bowl forty three, I think your chances
Speaker 1: improve because it would have been one of the most
Speaker 1: historic Super Bowl runs in the history of the sport,
Speaker 1: and you were a big face of that team. It
Speaker 1: will be interesting as time goes on to see if
Speaker 1: more guys get in. But I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: question the way you played the position, the numbers you
Speaker 1: put up, those are numbers that are Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: worthy in my opinion. In terms of your future in
Speaker 1: this job, do you want to be a general manager?
Speaker 1: Is that ultimately the goal? Or are you great just
Speaker 1: staying in Arizona in the position you're in. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit of both. You know. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, you do this job to get you know,
Speaker 1: any job, really, you do it to try to get
Speaker 1: to the highest point that you can possibly get to,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, being a head coach in the
Speaker 1: National Football League or been a general manager. I think
Speaker 1: when I got into this business, I got into the
Speaker 1: business first to learn it. Secondly to be dedicated and
Speaker 1: lawyer to this franchise, but also I want to see
Speaker 1: us win the super Bowl while I'm here. I think
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's ultimately, that's that's what I want,
Speaker 1: you know, in my career is to bring a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl to this organization, to the bid with a family,
Speaker 1: into the community of Arizona. But when you do this
Speaker 1: job and you do it right, I think you do
Speaker 1: get opportunities to be a general manager in the league
Speaker 1: and you have to go interview, you have to do
Speaker 1: all those sorts of things, and you know you have
Speaker 1: to you know, you have to do things the right way.
Speaker 1: And I think that ultimately, you know, one day I
Speaker 1: think that had happened for me. A few more we'll
Speaker 1: get you out of here. Mentioned earlier Kwami and Pat Tillman.
Speaker 1: There have been a lot of great safeties that have
Speaker 1: played for the Cardinals, obviously yourself, Hall of Famer Larry Wilson.
Speaker 1: What about Buddha Baker, how have you seen Buddha develop
Speaker 1: and what do you think we'll be saying about Buddha
Speaker 1: ten years from now? Yeah, when we first when we
Speaker 1: first drafted Buddha, I remember going to University of Washington
Speaker 1: and and you know, going to you know, look at
Speaker 1: look at some of his tape with Jimmy Lake and um,
Speaker 1: you know, just talking to Jimmy Lake about him. Brian
Speaker 1: Murphy at the time, Um, Sidney Jones was there, Kevin King.
Speaker 1: They had a lot of guys that were you know,
Speaker 1: draft eligible guys um in that secondary, and Buddha was
Speaker 1: the one guy when you turn the tape on, he
Speaker 1: was one hundred miles per hour, like no fear. And
Speaker 1: I remember I remember to this day calling Steve and saying,
Speaker 1: this kid, Budda Baker. He's not tyring by any by
Speaker 1: any stretch, but in terms of how you want to
Speaker 1: build a defense and how you want to build a
Speaker 1: secondary like he was, he was the building block in
Speaker 1: terms of us kind of starting over in the secondary
Speaker 1: and building around his skill set. When you say not
Speaker 1: like Tyran, because Tyrn has ridiculous instincts for the ball,
Speaker 1: and you just it's so rare that it's unfair to
Speaker 1: compare anybody to that. Is that kind of what you
Speaker 1: were thinking. I don't want to put words in your mouth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think that overall, I thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of, you know, how we wanted us to
Speaker 1: be moving forward as a as a secondary and as
Speaker 1: a back endum, tyring skill set was, you know, was
Speaker 1: crazy as compared to a lot of guys that were
Speaker 1: playing now, you know, his ability to play nickel, to
Speaker 1: play back deep, you know, to play corner sometimes like
Speaker 1: it was just one of those things where you're not
Speaker 1: going to find a guy as talented as Tiring, but
Speaker 1: you can have a guy like Buddha Baker that plays
Speaker 1: with the physicality, the toughness, the energy, the motor and
Speaker 1: you can build around that and it's and it's and
Speaker 1: it's something that's very very addictive. Guys around him would
Speaker 1: want to play for him. I think that's that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that you know, on my report, I remembresented,
Speaker 1: like guys are going to want to play for him
Speaker 1: because of how he plays the game. Do you have
Speaker 1: any sort of rivalry with Ron Wolflee given that both
Speaker 1: you both wore the number twenty four? Because when I
Speaker 1: think of the number twenty four and like what looks
Speaker 1: good on a on a Arizona Cardinal, I think of
Speaker 1: Adrian Wilson. The last thing I think. The last thing
Speaker 1: I think of as a fifty nine year old Ron
Speaker 1: Wolfley over there gorge and hotdogs during a broadcast putting
Speaker 1: on a number twenty four jersey. Yeah. Man, I've always
Speaker 1: I've always sold Ron. I always told him that. You know,
Speaker 1: whenever you got done playing twenty wearing twenty four, they
Speaker 1: gave it back out. Well I got done playing with it.
Speaker 1: They haven't given it back out all right, so they had,
Speaker 1: you know, they had a chance to give it to
Speaker 1: another guy. He ended up wearing it. But again, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things where nobody's will work
Speaker 1: since I warn it. So it's been a long time,
Speaker 1: so I don't think we'll see anybody wearing twenty four again.
Speaker 1: Appreciate the time, and it's been great. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Best to Luck rest of the season. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you. One of the all time great Cardinals, Adrian Wilson,
Speaker 1: five time Pro bowler, three time All Pro, spent twelve
Speaker 1: years with the organization. He's back and as you just
Speaker 1: heard him say, he wants to be part of a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl champion. Also has a desire if the opportunity
Speaker 1: comes along, to be a general manager. And just listening
Speaker 1: to Adrian and talking about his role and what he
Speaker 1: thought of Buddha Baker coming out, what he thought of
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, you clearly can tell that Adrian does his
Speaker 1: homework when it comes to player evaluation. He obviously has
Speaker 1: Steve Kim's ear, and I would not be shocked given
Speaker 1: the fact that Adrian is a former player and that
Speaker 1: he worked his way up. He wasn't afraid to start
Speaker 1: out as basically a gopher picking guys up at the airport,
Speaker 1: getting people coffee, that he's willing to put in the
Speaker 1: time to do what it takes to be a successful
Speaker 1: general manager in the National Football League. We are presented
Speaker 1: by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. He
Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter at pashpod. Thanks again to
Speaker 1: Cardinal legend Adrian Wilson. Big one for Arizona Sunday. The
Speaker 1: Cardinals still have a chance to win the NFC West.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you then when the Cardinals face the Seahawks.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening to this week's edition of the
Speaker 1: Dave Pash Podcast