Arizona Cardinals' Coach Debo very hands-on, though Jonathan Gannon has warning for him

USA Today

2 days ago

Arizona Cardinals' Coach Debo very hands-on, though Jonathan Gannon has warning for him The Cardinals' new DL coach brings a hands-on approach, but needs to be careful.
As defensive lineman Darius Robinson enters his second season with the Arizona Cardinals, he's doing it with a new defensive line coach.
Derrick LeBlanc coached the line last season, but was replaced by Winston DeLattiboudere III this year.
The 28-year-old DeLattiboudere, who is called Debo, played at the University of Minnesota from 2015 to 2019 and it turns out Robinson made a recruiting visit there before committing to Missouri in 2019.
Asked how the relationship is growing with Coach Debo, Robinson said, 'It's been cool. We figured out in high school; I took a visit to Minnesota. He was a player there. So that's kind of crazy to think about that. Obviously, I didn't go to Minnesota, but I'm just excited. His energy is very contagious. High-character guy. And I think he's going to get a lot out of this group and super excited.'
When it was noted how very hands-on DeLattiboudere is on the field, Robinson was asked the benefit of that.
'It just shows he's committed,' Robinson said. 'He's bought in. He wears his cleats to practice. So it was like; he's ready to go. Just make sure we're ready to go each day. At the end of the day, everything starts up front with the D-line. So having a coach that's doing the same thing is awesome.'
So it was that head coach Jonathan Gannon was asked this week about coaches wearing cleats. He said, 'I think that's for kind of like safety reasons. I never did, but I understand why you would do it.'
Please explain, coach.
'If you're running a drill and because of how the rules are, sometimes they have to be the blocking dummy. So, if (defensive lineman) L.J. Collier puts his two hands on you getting off the ball, you can slip and go down pretty quick. So that's what I mean by safety reasons. We've had a couple coaches go down already, which I don't like to see. But I keep telling them, 'Get out of the drill. You're going to get messed up.'
'I used to do that when I was a DB coach and then somebody punched me in the chin and I bit my tongue. I said, 'I'm never doing that again.' Like they'll learn sooner or later. To each their own. To each their own.'
Gannon then said the two coaches that fell down on the grass weren't hurt.
But they could have been, Gannon emphasized, and said, 'It's kind of scary.'
One of those coaches was DeLattiboudere. He was wearing a resistance band and went to the ground in a drill with rookie defensive lineman Walter Nolen III.
Said Gannon, 'Walter turned the corner and Debo wasn't at the right angle and it ripped him forward and then he tried to bend with it and fell down.'
Gannon compared what happened in the 2004 movie Troy where a horse was pulling a cart and the cart tipped over.
'That's what Debo looked like,' Gannon said. 'I said, 'You're gonna blow out your knee, dude.' He said, 'I got to get the angle better.'
'Yeah, you better get the angle better.'
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