One of the favorites for Arizona Wildcat fans is back in Arizona as a professional. Back in March, Antoine Cason signed a one year deal with the Arizona Cardinals to compete in the secondary with Patrick Peterson.
After leaving Arizona, Cason would make his way back to Arizona at least once a year to catch a football game or visit old coaches and friends. Cason is now back in the state where he first made a name for himself as an All-American and the Jim Thorpe Award winner for the top defensive back in the nation back in 2007.
Cason is now getting acclimated with his new team as the Cardinals are currently participating in OTA’s.
‘It’s going well,” Cason explained to Brad Cesmat Thursday on ‘Big Guy on Sports.’ “There’s a lot of new faces that’s here so it’s really exciting to get a new feel, fresh start and get everybody together, learn the defense, learn each other. It’s a good group of guys, a veteran group with a good mixture of some young guys.”
Cason spent the first five years of his career with the San Diego Chargers. In his time there he tallied 308 total tackles, 12 interceptions, four forced fumbles and started in all but three games over the last three seasons. He brings experience to the Cardinals secondary but there is still a learning curve this time of year.
“It was definitely a big adjustment,” Cason mentioned. “I came from a team I was with for the last five years and it’s a totally different situation for me. But I am embracing it and I am taking it head on and I am really excited about the new beginning I have here to come out, compete and get better.”
“On this staff there are a lot of guys that played the game before,” Cason added. “We definitely had some guys in San Diego that played the game but it’s hard to sum it up really quick. I’m just excited to be here in this situation with this staff and this group of guys.”
One of the reason’s why Cason is excited about this big adjustment in his career is learning and playing for the Cardinals new defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.
“Very, very, very smart guy,” Cason stated. “We enjoy getting in there and listening to him because he can help us get better and that’s what we need right now. To get better individually, look at ourselves critically. That’s definitely something that I am trying to do and he is helping me with that.”
Cason now joins a team in a division that many believe could be the deepest and toughest in the NFL. The 49ers are coming off a super bowl season and the Seahawks and Rams have seen great improvement. There was big news that came out of San Francisco on wednesday as someone who Cason would have had to line up against, Michael Crabtree, tore his achilles and will be out around nine months.
“That injury is definitely unfortunate.” Cason said. “He’s a competitor, I’m a competitor. I would love to get out there and compete with him but just to be in this division, to have a different challenge, it’s awesome to me and I love it.”
Cason and the Cardinals finished their week OTA’s in Tempe thursday and will be back at it for four days on June 3.
Related posts:
Jared Cohen
A born and bred Arizonan, Jared has had great passion for the hometown teams all his life. He now channel's that passion into covering the pro, college and high school teams around the state as a Multimedia Reporter for Sports360AZ.