The Dave Pasch Podcast - Adrian Wilson

and four defensive touchdowns. Part of the two eighteen that went to the Super Bowl, part of the team the following year that went back to the playoffs and beat the Green Bay Packers. Inducted into the Ring of Honor. As we mentioned in part of the Personnel Department since twenty fifty. We talked with Adrian about how he got started in this business, what his role is now with

the organization. We also live some of his favorite moments playing for the Arizona Cardinals, including when he played with the late Pat Tillman and the late Quam Lasseter. We'll also talk about this year's Arizona Cardinals and how they compare to that twenty eighteen that went to Super Bowl forty three. I think we have a lot of the same characteristics in terms of young guys that got drafted here that are, you know, kind of coming into our

own now. To me, we have a franchise quarterback and Carlin Murray looking back on those championship years that we had No. Eight, No nine, we want a division. I think that you know, it's very similar. We are presented by BETMGM, the official sports betting partner or at the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Sign up for BETMGM today using code cards one thousand and get your first bet risk free up to one thousand dollars.

New customer offer paid in free bets. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one and over Arizona only, Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step time out for our conversation with Adrian Wilson. So I get a ton of stuff I want to cover with you, man, but let's start with talking about this team. After the wins Sunday in Dallas, how do you feel Do you feel confident that this team is back to what we saw in September and October or do you

still need to see more? That's a loaded question. I'm relieved to get back, you know, to winning, getting back to kind of how we knew we could play football, you know, the past three weeks half being tough, just you know, going through a losing streak, you know, knowing that we were better than than what we were putting on the field, you know, just just really going out there and doubling down on some of the things they needed to do in terms of, you know, not turning

the ball over, the penalties and just making clutch plays. You know, I think that, you know, that game Sunday really put everything in perspective in terms of what we were doing in the first part of the season. Let's go back to that. Because the Cardinals get off to a seven and those start and a lot of people nationally that still weren't believing, they still didn't buy in. And maybe that's because a lot of people didn't really see a lot of the games until the Thursday night

game against Green Bay. What were some of the things early on that you look at and point to and say, you know, that's because you've been on great teams. That's what a championship team looks like. Well, I think, you know, the consistency of of going on the road and winning on the road, you know, and the style of how

we were winning. I think that you know, when teams look at us, you know, they look at Kyler, they look at you know, Cliff, they look at you know, the air raid kind of persona behind the offense, and that's not really you know, how our team has built. Our team is built to be a physical team. And really, you know, that's kind of what we've always hung our hat on. Was was that element of our game. I like how you said that because I think a lot of people would not assume that when you say built

to be a physical team. I know James Connor has missed the last couple of games. Hopefully it's back this week, if not for the playoffs. When you guys decided to bring him in, how much of what you said before about being a physical team, how much were you thinking

about James Connor? It was it was all we thought about. Um. I think going into the off season when me and Steve sat down, we really you know, sat down and really wanted to talk about the guys that we were bringing in, you know, what type of people were wanted to bring into the building, and whether it was you know, Rodney Hudson, whether it was J. J. Watt Um, whether it was being able to add Zavian Collins to the Mets throughout the draft Um, the defensive line rotation that

we've had over the past two years, was being able to add that defensive line. You know, we wanted to be stronger down the middle, and James into that equation and then getting Rodney, I think it gave us a pretty solid foundation in terms of what we wanted to be offensively, in terms of just being the physical football team. I want to get back to this team in the season. But you talked about sitting down with Steve. You're you're heavily in involved in all the decisions here with the

Cardinals as the vice president of Pro Personnel. And I'm curious because there are a lot of players, maybe more so in the NBA than the NFL, of your stature, guys that are borderline Hall of famers. I mean, you are in the Cardinals Ring of Honor. They're only I want to get into the Hall of Fame because it's only I think six or seven true safeties in the Hall of Fame. I've always felt, maybe a little biased that you should be in, and I want to talk

about that a little bit later. But you were a great player who made a lot of money, and a lot of guys at your stature they want to go right to be in a GM or right to be in a head coach. They're not willing to be an assistant, sent on a bench or get into scouting and travel and scout. But you were willing to do that seven years ago. Why I don't know. You know, I think

I love new challenges. I think that, you know, whenever I got done planning, I did kind of take a step back, and you know, I wanted to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. At first, I

thought it was going to be coaching. I was over at the high school up my sons high school a little bit, you know, just kind of going through the process of, you know, what I wanted to do next, and m BA and Steve kind of gave me the opportunity to come over here that summer and go through both sides of it in terms of the coaching side

and the personnel side. So I ended up, you know, falling in love more with the personnel side of it all because I had just had my last daughter and she was home and I wanted to kind of be home and I wanted to be around that whole process because really, you know, throughout my whole playing career, we had kids and I was never there. So, um, I wanted to be home, and you know, I wanted to have a set you know, a set schedule where I can kind of be there for them. And my first

year in personnel, I didn't. I didn't put one report into the system, not one report. I you know, I was picking guys up from the airport, getting their bags and stuff from baggage claim, you know, and dropping them off at physical runs. You know, I did all the grunting work, you know, in terms of, you know, kind of what our scouting assistants do now, and you know, I think it kind of gave me a foundation of how inglorious the job is. You know what I'm saying,

it's not. It's not a job where you get a lot of fanfare and people don't really understand, you know, behind the scenes, how much it takes to you know, the day to day operations of kind of what we do here. I love that story, and I'm not surprised knowing you. Look, you've always I'm known you for almost two decades. You've always been a confident guy, but you've always been humble and you're always very respectful of other

people's positions in the organization. I know you developed when you're playing a really good friendship with Chris Melbourne as part of the public relations staff, and you're always great in taking care of him because of how he took care of you. You always respectful of my job. I got him married twice, by the way, you twice you were the best man twice. No, I got him married twice. So you introduced him, Zach, I got him. Know that, all right, put that, let's put that on the ballot.

But I said that in the Hall of Fame. It's part of the resume. But so the fact that you're humble enough to accept that position, well, why do you think that is? Do you think part of that is? Because? I mean, you weren't the highest recruited guy coming out of high school. You were a third round pick. You weren't a top ten pick. I mean, people look back, I'm sure and look at the draft and say, yeah, Adrean Wilson should have been a top ten pick, but

you weren't. Do you think that's one of the reasons why it was easy for you to accept that role of picking guys up from the airport when you've been you know, had the career that you had. Yeah, I mean I didn't. You know, I'm just throughout my whole life, you know, I kind of just been dedicated and loyal

to whatever process I'm gonna be a part of. You know, I'm not I'm not the type of guy that is willing to, you know, skip a step to get ahead of somebody else, regardless of you know, kind of who I am and what I did on the football field.

I've always throughout my whole life, I've always especially when I was done planning, I wanted that part of my career to be over with in terms of my playing career, and then once I kind of get into my second career, I didn't want my football life to have any impact on the move that I was going to make going forward, and I wanted to learn every single step along the way. You know, It's kind of been my whole process, you know,

kind of stay dedicated and loyal to the process. You know, don't don't skip a step to try to get ahead of somebody else who may deserve it more than you do at that time. So take me from that first year when basically you're a runner what we call in our business, where you go and you pick people up or you go get coffee for people, that's what you're doing. What was the next step for you in the process

of getting to where you are now? The next up, you know, my second between my second and third year, probably you know, more into that third year, I ended up getting around twenty to twenty five schools around the country, going and you know, getting background on certain college guys, of some of the guys some of the schools that we had, whether it's the Southeast, you know, out west,

you know, in the East. So I was basically as a quasi national scout for US, just picking up some schools that either drew or some of the guys couldn't get tom and alone. That way, I was doing pro work as well, so I was doing advanced work at the same time while I was doing my college job, and you know, just kind of been on the road a lot, getting an experience of being out there getting get in the background, just just being able to kind of, you know, spare my network of people that I can

go and get information for. And I did that for probably about a year and a half before they ended up moving me in house. So as the vice president of Pro Scouting, I know that's your title, but you're doing so much more. So give the fans listening a sense of your daily duties, or maybe not just your daily duties. What do you do over the course of a year in terms of trying to help the organization

to get better. Yeah, you know, it really starts, you know, for me and you know July in terms of, you know, just being able to see what our roster kind of looks like overall based off of what last year was. So going into this offseason going into July, you know, fredencies over with the draft is over. I'm already ahead to the next year in terms of guys that are going to be coming up in the draft next year and then free agents that are coming up next year

that are already playing in the league. So my job description is a year long kind of process. M Steve basically will you know he'll call me in June July, you know, when everybody's in, you know, on vacation and stuff, and he'll ask me to look at guys. I always have to be ready to you know, have a report ready for him, regardless of you know, the time to place.

UM and just kind of stay one step ahead of Steve in terms of our roster makeup and just kind of where we are overall in the building in terms of the college side and the pro side. So you talked a bunch about Steve. Come. You two go way back. Obviously you both played at NC State. Do you remember the first time that you met Steve. Yeah, it was it was ninety seven when we first met. That was he was an assistant coach in NC State. Once I first got there, I got there and I got there

in ninety eight. My first year was in ninety eight, but I went in ninety seven to to visit. Um I was graduating high school early. UM. So I enrolled at NC State in the spring of ninety eight. UM So I ended up you know, going down there, you know, training really and going to you know, some of my classes as a freshman. UM. We ended up you know, really having a great relationship throughout that throughout that three to four month time and frame before he ended up

you know, leaving and coming here and being a scout here. Um, and we just kind of kept in touch and um, you know, it kind of started off with you know, just weight room stuff, a little bit of you know, bands are going back and forth, and the relationship just kind of grew, you know, throughout time. Um, I would ask him just you know, just simple things just about the campus because I didn't know, you know, I didn't know anything about the Rolly area and he was there

for a long time. Um, so places to eat and things like that. And again, the relationship just grew over time. He drafts you, he's part of the scouting staff that drafts you here, and twenty years later, you guys are still working together. Do you think the relationship works at this level for him being the GM and the role that you're in because you'll shoot him straight? I mean, do you think that that's one of the reasons why?

Because you guys know each other so well that if he asks you about a certain player or what you think the team should do, you're not gonna just tell him what he wants to hear. Yeah, I'm definitely not gonna bush him like, that's not I don't know if I can say that. It's our podcast, Okay, all right, So I don't like like, I don't like, I'm not I'm not gonna do that to him because I know how important a job is to him. But at the same time, like I want, like I want us to

be successful too, Like I don't want to. I don't want to be a part of a team where I'm not giving everything at all in terms of my evaluation, you know, me being able to give Steve the right information Steve or Michael. You know, if Michael asked me a question, like I'm gonna be honest with him and I'm I'm not gonna, you know, cut the corner and try to tell him something that I think that he wants to hear, Like I'm not, I'm not here for that.

What's been one of the toughest conversations that you and Steve have had about a particular player or a decision that's been made here that you had a big impact on this organization because either a you decided to go ahead and make a particular move or because you didn't go ahead and pull the trigger on a move. Well, I think it's been it's been a year after year

after year. I think the past three years, whether it was us, you know, acquiring DeAndre Hopkins and being able to you know, end up giving up a pick um to get DeAndre, whether it was you know, last year at Rodney Hudson. I remember me and VJ was at George's protae and um, they ended up putting out that you know, Rodney was going to get released. And the whole dynamics of being able to go acquire Rodney and what it took to go acquire Rodney was it the

right move? And I think, you know, any time you you know, are in a position where you can get the team better, regardless of you know, the assets that you have to give up, I think you have to be able to take a chance on that, on that player. But if I didn't have the evaluation, and if I didn't look at the guy way ahead of time, and Steve would have asked me that, then I would have

man just telling him something that I didn't know. And that was That's That's the type of relationship that we have is he knows that I'm gonna do the work, and he knows that I'm gonna be prepared with whatever question that you asked me, because nine times out of tend I've already seen the tape. So I think that he trusts me with my opinion when it comes to

us making those types of decisions on players. The decision to draft Kyler Murray, I think ten years from now people are talking about it now, but ten years from now, twenty years from now, it's probably going to be commonplace. But you guys were the first to draft a quarterback in the first round the year after you draft a quarterback in the first round. Take me through that. What you recall about making that decision to draft Kyler Murray

after you had drafted Josh Rosen the previous year. Yeah, I think that was a total organization move in terms of Michael and Steve sitting down and realizing that A, we need to make a change. B it's this quarterback the right one. He is he the right fit for us moving forward in terms of what our what our future holds for the organization. And you know, both those answers were, yes, we didn't need to make a change, and yes, Kyler murb was going to be the guy.

But you know, I think you have to be willing to admit that you made a mistake. And I think that once once we ended up realizing that we did do that, then you know, we were all out full goal to try to make sure that we can correct that mistake. He's one rookie of the year. He's going to the Pro Bowl for the second time. He's led a team to the playoffs here in year three. He obviously has room to grow. We've talked about, you know,

at age twenty four, still needing to mature. What are some of the steps though, that are tangible that you've seen him make on the field, in the locker room, off the field, that gives you confidence that he's headed in the right direction to lead this team to the championship. Yeah. I think people really have to understand, Like I mean, he's twenty four years old. You know, I can remember when I was twenty four years old and coming here.

When I got here, I was twenty years old, So I can understand kind of the maturation that it takes, you know, to become a leader, to be able to you know, to double down on your preparation, you know, just some of the small things that it takes to be a good player. Kyler probably did those things in high school the way that you know, the way that high schools played now as opposed to when I was playing.

I think now with him, the leadership on the practice field been able to hold guys accountable and guys don't get pissed that he's yelling at him because of the way that he leads, you know, he he probably doesn't lead like you know, Aaron Rodgers or you know somebody else that everybody sees on tv UM. He leads differently. You know, he's a he's a different type of quarterback. And I think that you know, everybody in this locker room has embraced, you know, kind of who he is

as a person collectively. You know, he's not a guy that's gonna be walking around here smiling. You know. I was like that, you know, so you know, it's just one of those things where you know, the team has to, you know, understand the type of leader that he is. I think everybody rallies behind him and he's going to continue to mature and he's gonna continue to grow for

us and win football games for us. You still don't have a smile on your face me sometimes, I mean I'm more happier now than what I was when I was playing. I can say that. But see, man, I was never afraid of you because I knew you had a big heart. But there are a lot of guys like you're you have a presence, You're an intimidating guy.

I'm curious how much interaction do you have with players and like how do they when they see you, and do you challenge guys talk to them about, hey, you need to do this better, or hey you need to change this, you need to do this here if you really want to be great, or you're not going to be here. I'm don't mean to put words in you, Like what do you say, what kind of conversations you

have with players? Yeah, this is my this is my you know, seventh year in the front office, but this is my twenty second, twenty third year you know, kind of in this organization. So you know, just being able to kind of have the free will to go around and be who I am. Um, that has always you know, it's it's it's always been important for Michael and Steve to kind of give me that that full rain, to say, hey,

we're not putting rains on you. You know, you can do whatever and say whatever you want to these players. And I've you know, I've kind of ran with that in terms of it's not a front office versus players thing. You know what I'm saying that we're all in this together.

We all want to see each other succeed. And sometimes it takes having hard conversations with guys to you know, to to to get them to play at their best or what we think is their best, and you know, for God to continue to grow, you know, it's not so much about the football field, it's about maturing you know, in the community, um, you know, just doing stuff on a day to day basis that they may not be

willing to think that they aren't doing. You know, a lot of guys think that they're doing everything right and sometimes it's not. It's not enough and sometimes they need God to tell them that it's not enough. And unfortunately, like I'm that guy. So you know, I've had hard

conversations with these guys for quite some time. Now. Is there a particular and you don't have to name a player, but there's there a particular incident or a conversation and you can share that may have been uncomfortable for the other person. Yeah, I mean, you know it was. It was a player here a couple of years ago, and um, we had we had an issue here, um in terms of you know, him, him wanting to be you know, a little bit different than what everybody else was, you know,

wearing out on a practice field. Um, that player in it up going to get a different jersey. I ended up finding out about it. I went down to his locker room, I took the jersey out of his locker. Then I proceeded to go outside, and then I told him, if you want the jersey, come take it from him, and he didn't. So, you know, it's just, you know, it's just one of those things where it's not about an individual person, you know. And that's that's what you know.

When I got here, you know, Ronald McKinnon, Um, a lot of these older veteran guys, Rod Frederickson, Kwanby Lasseter, Corey Javis, you know a lot of the older veteran guys, you know, like I looked up to those guys, and those guys did it the right way, even though we weren't a talented team. Um, you know, I came in with a bunch of veteran guys that did it the right way, and you know, that's kind of what I want us to be. I wanted us to be a

team to do it the right way. Along those lines, what do you recall from that first year with Pat Tillman. I recall that, you know, it wasn't easy for me because you know, he was you know, he was Pat Chilman, and he was all everything, you know, Arizona State, being drafted here me knowing that, you know, I got drafted the third round. I came to camp late, my contract

wasn't done. I got here late. They ragged on me so much, you know, my first couple of weeks that you know, I didn't know if anybody liked me, So I didn't you know, I didn't. I didn't care at the time. But at the same time, like it kind of got me going in the sense of, you know, kind of my main streak and kind of like where

where that came from. It came from, you know, me coming in late, me knowing that, hey, I'm gonna have to like earn my keep here, and you know, Pat was probably one of the first ones that that really sat me down, and you know, kind of taught me the inner workings of a playbook and how you study and how you take notes and you know, just those

sorts of things. And you know, he's spent a lot of time with me, you know, just my first year and just just you know, learning how to do a lot of things that I didn't know, you know, coming into into the league. Can you talk about your relationship with Kwami last or another former cardinal that was taken from us too soon? Yeah, Um, you know when I first you know again, when I first got here, Um,

Kwami and Pat, both those guys were starting here. And you know, just being in the room with with both those guys, knowing that you know, they played so much football, and just being able to kind of be a sponge you know in the meeting rooms. But then outside of the meeting rooms, I gravitated more towards Kwami in terms of you know, the off the field stuff, in terms of you know, being being with his family, UM, seeing what type of dad that he was, Um, you know,

how he interacted with people outside of just football. You know that. I think those were things that um impressed me in the most about him is the type of person that he was the type of father that he was, and you know, those are the things that I missed about him most because he would come over, you know, during the holidays, we would play cards, and you know, he would talk to my dad, talk to my mom. You know, it was just like a normal, you know,

regular conversation. And you know, those are probably the things that I missed most about him. Did Kwami always want to talk to you about his contract? Because I remember my first year here was two thousand and two and I hosted the Big Red Rage with Kwami and it was the two of us. It was a Jellies, a place called Jellies. First of all, nobody we would like sit at this table, and I think there are people that looked at us like what are these guys doing

over there? There was no fanfare, there wasn't a big stage. It was just the two of us, and all Kwami ever want to do with me was talking about his contract. My first I don't know if it's my first year of my second year when Kwamy got franchise, I wanted to say, and he ended up like he was he was. I remember in the meeting room because I sat beside him and he had turned around and looked at me. He was like, don't you ever let them? Do you like this? I was like, like, once, you're about to

make three million dollars. I'm like, that's the most one I've ever seen in my life. Right, He's like pissed about it. So I'm like, man, I don't know. I was like, that was my first like real instance of seeing like a veteran, you know, getting franchise Like that was the first time me actually like seeing it and seeing how pissed he was about it. I was like,

you about to get a lot of freaking money. You pissed about that, and then about five years later you were making a lot more than two thousand and eight. You guys go to the Super Bowl. I was in Orlando doing bowl games last week, and because John Madden had passed away, John and I have the same agent, Sandy Montag, and I heard that the game was going

to be on because John Madden's last broadcast. So I just got done doing Clemson's bowl game and We're sitting at a restaurant after in the games on, so I'm forced to watch it, which I really don't want to, but it was Madden's last game, so I'm watching it, and I knew how many great players they were there were on the Cardinals that year, but it seems like all everybody talks about as well nine and seven didn't have, you know, a great season and got hot, but there

there were some talent on this team and a lot of guys that made multiple or Pro Bowls. What do you is there like a particular moment that stands out above the others about that season or that run for you that you'll remember forever. Well, I just you know, I think that that team, in particular, especially on defense. You know, we had a bunch of guys that were,

you know in their fourth, fifth, sixth year. You know that you know, either got drafted here or came here from another team that you know, we didn't have a lot of experience in terms of winning, but the group was so close an age and I think that you know, we kind of grew up together throughout that year. And then to go back to your point, the following year,

you know, we ended up going ten and six. You know, we ended up getting beat by New Orleans, but you know, just us being able to kind of grow together throughout that whether it was me and Carlos Me and Darnell Me and Atreill. You know, it was a lot of guys on that team. You know, an Quin, you know,

a young Larry Fitzgerald. I mean, there was a lot of guys, sim Howtower was on that team, Reggie Wells, you know a lot of guys that got drafted here that we kind of grew up together in terms of going from a losing kind of franchise to now, you know, we ended up knowing what it suks to kind of win, and a lot of those guys ended up, you know, going to other places that ended up getting you know, paid a lot of money. But I just remember just

those relationships. You know, we still have those relationships to this day. I went and saw American Underdog with my family last weekend. The Kurt Warner story, it's really good. It's it's very well done. Sports movies usually get messed up. I thought they did a really good job with it. And it's it's not about Kurt as a cardinal, but Zachary Levi, the actor, to me, like, and I know Kurt pretty well, Like it's Kurt. Like they did a really good job of showing how guys started to kind

of believe in him and follow him. What do you remember about that about Kurt's persona, his presence that kind of brought everybody to get I thought he was tough as, to be honest with you, I thought that his toughness far outweighed how smart he was, how accurate he was with the football. You know. I think his toughness identified with who we wanted to be as a as a team. UM. And I've always told Kurt this. He he was a

lot tougher than what people gave him credit for. Um, even though he's you know, in the Hall of Fame, which is deserving. But his toughness and accountability, I think to this, to this organization, UM, kind of put us, you know, above probably where we should have been at that time. It gave us a kind of jump start and a boost, um to to really you know, going into you know Ba's era, you know, going into going

into those eras after Kurt left here. UM, I think that really gave us some credibility, and it gave the organization a boost. So thirteen years later, you're in a different role in the organization. Obviously, how would you can pair of the twenty twenty one Arizona Cardinals to the twenty eight team that went to the Super Bowl. I think we have a lot of the same characteristics in terms of young guys that got drafted here that are, you know, kind of coming into their own now. To me,

we have a franchise quarterback and Calin Murray. I think the defense is young. We have very young pieces. I think they're dynamic, and I think looking back on those championship years that we had in O. Eight No. Nine we won a division, I think that, you know, it's very similar in terms of the Pro Bowl type players that we have on this team and just how young the team is moving forward. It feels like this is sustainable.

You talked, I'm glad you brought it up to the twenty nine team because at that point there hadn't been many teams that lost the Super Bowl and then went to the playoffs. The next year. You guys went to the playoffs, won a game, you lose in New Orleans to a team that you know had a juggernaut offense, ended up winning the Super Bowl. Do you feel like this if Tyler continues to play the ways playing and stays healthy, is this sustainable for a significant period of

time made up. Do you think, yeah, because I think that we as an organization and and and I think the players downstairs feel like that we are good. And I think that's a totally different feeling than you know, back in oh eight, you know, when we were just getting to that point of getting good players in the door. Now, I think, as a whole organizationally, like, we know we're good, and we know that we have good people in the

front office. We know we have good players downstairs. And now it's all about just continuing to add players into the mix, add the right type of people to the locker room downstairs. You know, I think there's a there's a certain addish that you know, yes, you can draft talented players, but they have to be the right type of person. You know, it has to be, you know, the type of person that you're trying to build your organization around. It has to be it has to be

the right person. In your career, you had twenty seven interceptions, twenty five and a half sacks, four touchdowns. Those are great numbers. There are eighteen safeties in the Hall of Fame, six in the modern era. That are safeties, not safety slash corners. Although you did play corner some as well. Ronnie Lott, Rod Woodson, Brian Dawkins, Kenny Easley, who did not play very long. He had that one year he had ten picks. I think he only played seven years.

John Lynch, who did not have as many sacks as you did. I think he may have had half the number of sacks you have, but he won a Super Bowl. And Ed Reid. Do you think you should be in the Hall of Fame? Yeah, I think there's an argument that can be made when you look at you know, Troy Polamalu, and you look at his numbers. If you're basing it just solely off of numbers, they're very comparable, even though mine are a bit better than his. You know, he played on number one defense is pretty much his

whole career. When I look at my career and I look at where it started to where it ended, the type of people that we ended up getting into the building in terms of guys on defense, it took us a while to get to that point where we had good players. And you know, playing in Arizona, you don't really get a lot of the fanfare and you don't get the recognition that you probably deserve. You know, I probably missed out on three or four you know, Pro Bowls,

just based off of where I played at. But in terms of changing the way that the safety position was played, I think I was a big part of that in terms of how the modern days safety is deployed now. But again, you know, I don't have a vote. You know, you don't have a vote. It's just one of those things where you know, I think, you know, people like Jim Trotter, people that you know look at the game every single Sunday will understand the type impact that I

had every Sunday that I played. I think if the Cardinals win Super Bowl forty three, I think your chances improve because it would have been one of the most historic Super Bowl runs in the history of the sport, and you were a big face of that team. It will be interesting as time goes on to see if more guys get in. But I don't think there's any question the way you played the position, the numbers you put up, those are numbers that are Hall of Fame

worthy in my opinion. In terms of your future in this job, do you want to be a general manager? Is that ultimately the goal? Or are you great just staying in Arizona in the position you're in. Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. You know. I think, you know, obviously, you do this job to get you know, any job, really, you do it to try to get to the highest point that you can possibly get to, whether it's you know, being a head coach in the

National Football League or been a general manager. I think when I got into this business, I got into the business first to learn it. Secondly to be dedicated and lawyer to this franchise, but also I want to see us win the super Bowl while I'm here. I think that's you know, that's ultimately, that's that's what I want, you know, in my career is to bring a Super Bowl to this organization, to the bid with a family,

into the community of Arizona. But when you do this job and you do it right, I think you do get opportunities to be a general manager in the league and you have to go interview, you have to do all those sorts of things, and you know you have to you know, you have to do things the right way. And I think that ultimately, you know, one day I think that had happened for me. A few more we'll get you out of here. Mentioned earlier Kwami and Pat Tillman.

There have been a lot of great safeties that have played for the Cardinals, obviously yourself, Hall of Famer Larry Wilson. What about Buddha Baker, how have you seen Buddha develop and what do you think we'll be saying about Buddha ten years from now? Yeah, when we first when we first drafted Buddha, I remember going to University of Washington and and you know, going to you know, look at look at some of his tape with Jimmy Lake and um,

you know, just talking to Jimmy Lake about him. Brian Murphy at the time, Um, Sidney Jones was there, Kevin King. They had a lot of guys that were you know, draft eligible guys um in that secondary, and Buddha was the one guy when you turn the tape on, he was one hundred miles per hour, like no fear. And I remember I remember to this day calling Steve and saying,

this kid, Budda Baker. He's not tyring by any by any stretch, but in terms of how you want to build a defense and how you want to build a secondary like he was, he was the building block in terms of us kind of starting over in the secondary and building around his skill set. When you say not like Tyran, because Tyrn has ridiculous instincts for the ball, and you just it's so rare that it's unfair to compare anybody to that. Is that kind of what you

were thinking. I don't want to put words in your mouth. Yeah, I just think that overall, I thought that, you know, in terms of, you know, how we wanted us to be moving forward as a as a secondary and as a back endum, tyring skill set was, you know, was crazy as compared to a lot of guys that were playing now, you know, his ability to play nickel, to play back deep, you know, to play corner sometimes like it was just one of those things where you're not

going to find a guy as talented as Tiring, but you can have a guy like Buddha Baker that plays with the physicality, the toughness, the energy, the motor and you can build around that and it's and it's and it's something that's very very addictive. Guys around him would want to play for him. I think that's that's one of the things that you know, on my report, I remembresented, like guys are going to want to play for him

because of how he plays the game. Do you have any sort of rivalry with Ron Wolflee given that both you both wore the number twenty four? Because when I think of the number twenty four and like what looks good on a on a Arizona Cardinal, I think of Adrian Wilson. The last thing I think. The last thing I think of as a fifty nine year old Ron Wolfley over there gorge and hotdogs during a broadcast putting on a number twenty four jersey. Yeah. Man, I've always

I've always sold Ron. I always told him that. You know, whenever you got done playing twenty wearing twenty four, they gave it back out. Well I got done playing with it. They haven't given it back out all right, so they had, you know, they had a chance to give it to another guy. He ended up wearing it. But again, you know, it's just one of those things where nobody's will work since I warn it. So it's been a long time, so I don't think we'll see anybody wearing twenty four again.

Appreciate the time, and it's been great. Thanks so much. Best to Luck rest of the season. I appreciate it. Thank you. One of the all time great Cardinals, Adrian Wilson, five time Pro bowler, three time All Pro, spent twelve years with the organization. He's back and as you just heard him say, he wants to be part of a Super Bowl champion. Also has a desire if the opportunity

comes along, to be a general manager. And just listening to Adrian and talking about his role and what he thought of Buddha Baker coming out, what he thought of Kyler Murray, you clearly can tell that Adrian does his homework when it comes to player evaluation. He obviously has Steve Kim's ear, and I would not be shocked given the fact that Adrian is a former player and that

he worked his way up. He wasn't afraid to start out as basically a gopher picking guys up at the airport, getting people coffee, that he's willing to put in the time to do what it takes to be a successful general manager in the National Football League. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. He can follow us on Twitter at pashpod. Thanks again to

Cardinal legend Adrian Wilson. Big one for Arizona Sunday. The Cardinals still have a chance to win the NFC West. We'll talk to you then when the Cardinals face the Seahawks. Thanks again for listening to this week's edition of the Dave Pash Podcast