With the new Rivalries uniform placed in front of him, a jersey centered around the message of being built to last, running back James Conner's message heading into the season is similar.
It's about "handling business" and building upon a busy offseason full of defensive upgrades and offensive continuity.
"I'm excited. I really am," the running back said. "We know what we want to do this year and who we want to be. We've got a great opportunity in front of us with the Saints, so we've got to come ready. It'll be a tough one, but we look forward to the challenge and accepting all challenges."
Who the Cardinals want to be is a team that plays with the motor and physicality that coach Jonathan Gannon preaches on the daily. A team who can utilize the optimism of a fan base and propel itself into a postseason berth for the first time since 2021.
And a team who can double down and capitalize on its investments in the trenches on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
"Whatever you want your team to be, the identity, scheme, whatever type of offense we run, we've just got to execute," Conner said. "Of course you want to be clean and crisp and focus on what you do and do it at a high level."
Jonah Williamsrecalled playing the Cardinals in 2023 when he was with the Bengals, and while on the opposing sidelines, the Cardinals' identity of being physical in the trenches stood out to the right tackle.
When he signed with the Cardinals in free agency, the vision of what the team was creating was clear.
"There was that reputation of these guys are going to play hard and fly around and then last year, I think we took a step from that and beefed up and added better players," Williams said. "I think this year, all of the pieces are in place. Yeah, we want to be a very talented team and have really good players, but we want people to leave saying 'They have good players but were also flying around and being violent.'"
It's an important season for Williams after missing 11 games last year with a knee injury. After offseason surgery, he said he has felt great all camp. "It's no fun watching from the sidelines," he said.
The team has the weekend off before they begin their game week preparing for the Saints. New Orleans coach Kellen Moore announced that Arizona native Spencer Rattler will be their starting quarterback. Zaven Collins said he has started to look into their opponent some, although the outside linebacker proceeds with caution.
"It's kind of hard of because you want to get to looking at them, but you don't want to consume too much information," Collins said. "You still have stuff to study at night and kind of take a little bit of your time and not just sit there all the time watching that same team prepping for game one."
Starters like Collins, Williams, and Conner all played in the first preseason game against the Chiefs. It was a change in philosophy from last season in which the starters did not play at all during the preseason. It was also a sign of how important this upcoming season is. They, like their Rivalries uniforms highlight, want to be built to last.
Plus, the feeling of getting tackled again reminded Conner of the thing he loves most.
Football is back.
"I think we will come out, be ready, not be antsy, and hit the gas full speed," Conner said.
