Bruce Arians on QBs, overusing David Johnson, Justin Bethel ‘failure’

In the view of Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, there is one quarterback in the upcoming draft capable of playing as a rookie. Arians wouldn’t name the player, and with Carson Palmer returning, the Cardinals don’t need a rookie to play in 2017.

That suggests the Cardinals won’t use the 13th overall pick on a quarterback, but Arians wouldn’t go that far.

“You never know what next year is going to bring,” Arians said Wednesday morning in a breakfast meeting with reporters at the NFL’s Annual Meeting at the Arizona Biltmore. “That’s why I say, don’t reach. If you reach you’re probably going to get a bust, because your expectations are out of whack. You’re looking at a position now, you have a year or two to develop him, so you’re looking for that type of guy.

“If you are a team that needs one now, today, you have to trade up to get one. That’s your deal.”

MORE: 2017 NFL draft quarterback rankings | Cardinals draft history: QBs

The Cardinals are scheduling private workouts with many of the top quarterback prospects in the upcoming draft. It’s Arians’ goal to have one in place whenever Palmer retires, because he saw what happened to the Cardinals and former coach Ken Whisenhunt when Kurt Warner retired after the 2009 season, a year earlier than expected.

They had no ready replacement, and Whisenhunt was fired three seasons later.

“I don’t want that to happen to the organization again,” Arians said. “I wouldn’t say this is Carson’s last year. Just like (Tom) Brady is saying he wants to play five more years, I think Carson, it will be hard for him to say, ‘I’m done.’

“He’s still healthy. So I don’t know if it (drafting a quarterback) is mandatory this year, but it would be beneficial to all of us to get it out of the way.”

Arians touched a wide variety of subjects in the 45-minute meeting with media. One of the more outspoken coaches in the NFL, Arians drew one of the larger crowds among the NFC coaches’ session on Wednesday.

BICKLEY: Arizona Cardinals facing NFL draft dilemma

Here are his views on a wide-range of topics:

NFL rules changes and the move to hire some full-time officials:

“I think the biggest thing is they can come to practice and work practices and do things. Just be a full-time official and stay in shape.”

Jared Veldheer moving from left tackle to right:

“We’re fortunate. We have two left tackles (Veldheer and D.J. Humphries). Most people don’t have anybody. Somebody’s got to play right. Right now, it appears Jared’s going to make that move. I haven’t been completely sold on it. I want to see him at that position first.”

Does he regret calling cornerback Justin Bethel a “failure in progress” last season?

“No, because only one line of that was used. I said it was not his fault because of his broken foot.”

Arians only said that last light after a reporter followed up about Bethel’s injury.

“It’s funny because his father came to practice that Saturday and grabbed me and said, ‘You trying to motivate my son?’

“I said, ‘yeah.’

“He said, ‘I think it’s working.’”

MORE: AFC coaches react to Raiders’ move and more

If he thinks defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche can step in and help replace Calais Campbell:

“When a little bit of the time he was healthy, we saw all the things we needed to see. The ankle injury was more severe than any of us knew until the end of the season.

“I think, again, when you kick everybody’s ass from high school through college, you don’t have to work that hard. But all of a sudden, these guys are kicking your ass and you better learn how to work. That’s all rookies, not just Robert. But he learned to work.”

On the fear of overusing running back David Johnson:

“He’s still young to overuse. You go back and look, his number of carries weren’t that bad. His number of touches, because he’s such a dynamic pass receiver, I don’t want those to go down at all. I want to have 30 touches out of him, if possible, because that’s going to be a lot of the offense.”

“No, because we’re taking them to every major city now. If you’re looking for trouble, there’s  trouble to find everywhere. Any team that comes to Phoenix, there’s a casino on every corner. We’re on business trips. If you have a team that’s not a business trip, you’re probably going to get fired anyway. So don’t worry about it.”

Jets coach Todd Bowles joked that assistant coaches will be bigger problem in Las Vegas.

“We’ll make sure we have a 8 o’clock staff meeting to make sure they’re all in,” Arians said.

Why he pinned special teams woes in 2016 on players and injuries, not special teams coach Amos Jones:

“I’ve been around him for so long. I know how good of a coach he is. I watch him coach. When you take away your five best cover guys and your kicker doesn’t have his best year and your punter doesn’t have the year he is capable of having, it ain’t got a damn thing to do with coaching. If I thought it was something to do with a coach, we’d address it.”

NFL POWER RANKINGS: Where Cardinals stand after free agency