workouts ‘couldn’t come fast enough.’

The Cardinals held their first optional offseason workout Monday and, while what happens in April often has little do with what happens in September, there were two pieces of positive news.

First, cornerback Patrick Peterson said a lot of the players were in the weight room by 6 a.m., a sign, he said, of their eagerness to move on from last year’s 7-8-1 record.

“It feels great to be back,” Peterson said. “Couldn’t come fast enough. We definitely want to get that bad taste out our mouths from last year. I thought today was a good start. That’s always a good sign when you see the early risers trying to knock out their workout and get in that grind mood.

“For the most part it just seems like guys are going to be more hungry because expectations were so high last year and it was a disappointing season. Now we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

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The second bit of good news: Running back David Johnson, who suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee the final game of the regular season, said he is 100 percent and was cleared to resume full football activities two weeks ago.

“I’m doing everything,” Johnson said.

Like Peterson, Johnson was eager to turn the page on the disappointing 2016 season.

“It motivates me even more,” he said. “We were supposed to have such a promising season last year … I can’t wait for it (the 2017 season) to start.”

Protect the quarterback

Johnson is coming off a spectacular season – he led the NFL with 2,118 all-purpose yards – but there’s one area of his game he admitted needs work.

“Mainly I want to get better at pass protection,” he said. “I definitely missed a lot of blocks and missed a lot of linebackers. That’s probably my main focus, working on that.”

Older but better

Peterson liked the additions of veterans such as 35-year-old linebacker Karlos Dansby and 32-year-old safety Antoine Bethea, even though their best years might be behind them.

“It can be a good thing and a bad thing. Hopefully it will be a good thing for us,” Peterson said. “You always want to stay young but when you can gain experience at the same time you pretty much let the car drive itself … When you bring guys in that have played in big games it’s almost like we have someone we can rely on … Not that we couldn’t rely on the guys that were here. But when you have that veteran presence it’s just different.”

Say what?

Peterson said he’s surprised that the Seattle Seahawks are shopping 2012-14 first-team All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman.

“I have no idea what’s going on over there in that organization but at the end of the day it’s a business,” Peterson said. “(There was) speculation he was going off on teammates. Who knows what it is? Richard is a great player and like he did say, ‘The grass is not always greener on the other side.'”

Quote of the day

This is what strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris had to say about the overall physical condition of the players: “Guys got some work to do. We got some guys who really need to go back to their personal terrorists (trainers) … and get their money back because we got some guys who need some work. But for the majority and the most part, great job. We need to continue that from now until the end of the season.”

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