Cardinals WR A.J. Green Focusing on Communication, Finishing in 2022

Voluntary workouts for the Arizona Cardinals begin Tuesday (April 19), and you can bet receiver A.J. Green will be present despite the ink still being wet on his recent one-year deal to bring him back to the team.to Arizona last offseason, and tested the waters of free agency before returning to the Cardinals for his 12th season in the league.

"It's nice out here. I know a lot of guys like this out here, so I think it'll be a good bit of people here tomorrow," Green told reporters during his press conference on Monday.

Green initially arrived in Arizona last offseason, and tested the waters of free agency before returning to the Cardinals for his 12th season in the league.

"For me, I think it's they know what I can do. I didn't have to start over," Green said about the decision to stay with Arizona. "Coaches know what I can do. I know my role here. I know the system. I think it just didn't make sense for me to go somewhere else and start over again."

Not everything will be the same when Green and his teammates take the field for the first time. Players such as linebacker Chandler Jones and wide receiver Christian Kirk are on new teams with improved bank accounts. 

Green isn't worried about how different the offense will be in 2022, saying, "I think everything's gonna be the same. I think what Rondale (Moore) can do with the ball in his hands, he also can run great routes, I think everything is gonna be the same. I know we lost a big part of (the offense in) C-Kirk, but I felt like Rondale's very capable of coming to the scene and be very special for this offense."

Green played in 16 games for the Cardinals last season, catching 54 passes for 848 yards and three touchdowns. 

Once receiver DeAndre Hopkins went down for the season, Arizona's offense failed to properly adjust. Green's production tailed off as the year ended, and he acknowledged that.

Green said, "(It was) alright, it was an OK season, I think towards the end I didn't finish like I wanted to finish and I think for me, I just got to stay on top of the details. Communicate with K1 (quarterback Kyler Murray); we just got to be on the same page on a lot of this stuff."

Communication was a heavy topic of discussion particularly following Arizona's loss to the Green Bay Packers, when Green was (unknowingly) targeted in the end zone late in the fourth quarter by Murray. Green believed it was a running play, and the pass was intercepted with his back turned to the incoming ball.

"I think it's a lot of room (for growth). I think for me, it's just communicating with him (Murray) what I see or what he wants me to do, how he wants me to run this route. And I think last year, it was a lack on my part. I didn't really communicate with him about stuff like that because I didn't want to put a lot of stuff on his plate," Green said about his relationship with Murray. 

The Cardinals lost four of their final five regular-season games before bowing out to the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the playoffs. 

Green suggested the spiral at the end of last year played a role in him wanting to again take another shot at making a playoff push, as he said, "I think we started off the season so well. To end like we did definitely left a bad taste in my mouth that I wanted to get back here and get this thing rolling and try to get this thing on track again."

Despite his presence on the depth chart, the Cardinals still are favored to take a receiver in the early stages of the upcoming NFL draft. 

"For them drafting a receiver, that's not my call. I'm gonna come here to work every day, no matter who is here," said Green.

Green believes the partnership between he and Hopkins will be a tough assignment for any secondary once again. 

He said, "I think with D-Hop out there I feel like we don't really care about the balls. I think we're just trying to win and we'll do anything to help this offense go. And I think we're both unselfish. We're both competitors, we're all playing for this ultimate goal and that's to win the Super Bowl."

The work starts now for Green and the rest of the Cardinals. Time will tell if Super Bowl aspirations will come to fruition, but Green's willing to take his chances with Arizona over other teams in the league.