Pairings can often be force-fed.
Just because Terrell Suggs and Chandler Jones are both excellent edge rushers doesn't mean they have to be best friends. Sometimes, though, the stars align just right.
Suggs returned to the Cardinals this week for mandatory minicamp and his chemistry with Jones looked like it never took a day off.
On Tuesday afternoon, they spent a portion of practice getting into a dance-off. Twenty-four hours earlier, they were mimicking the pose from the movie 'Stepbrothers' during a promotional photo shoot.
"When you click, you click," Suggs said. "I spent a lot of time with his brother (former Ravens defensive lineman Arthur Jones), so we've already got history. We've just got natural chemistry and we're having some fun."
Suggs played the part of actor Will Ferrell in the photo while Jones sat on a stool like John C. Reilly.
"Somebody posted it and said 'The Sack Brothers,'" Suggs said. "I thought that was pretty clever."
The pose had an unintended side effect for Jones. He recently began calling left tackle D.J. Humphries 'Little Hump' because he resembles a younger version of new Cardinals right tackle Marcus Gilbert.
Now Humphries has ammunition to fire back.
"As soon as I saw that 'Stepbrothers' picture I was like, yep, that's Big Sizz and Little Sizz right there," Humphries said. "I've been calling (Jones) Little Sizz all week. He doesn't like it at all. It's hard to find buttons to push on Chandler and I found one. So I'm going to keep pressing it as many times as I can."
While Humphries noticed similar features in Jones and Suggs, he learned on Tuesday that their bag of pass-rushing tricks is completely different. Suggs, 36, has been in the NFL since 2003 and went old school during practice.
"I told him earlier, 'You got me on those early 2000s moves,'" Humphries said. "I haven't seen those before. I was in middle school. I'm used to all the 2010 and beyond moves. I had to work back into some of those moves I hadn't seen since Madden '05."
Suggs has 132½ career sacks in his 16 seasons, the most among any active player in the NFL. Jones has 77 in his seven years. Coach Kliff Kingsbury is excited about what they can do together.
"They're good for each other," Kingsbury said. "It's going to be hard to single any one of those guys. One of those guys is going to be in a favorable matchup, and they know it's going to help both of them."
Even though Suggs has the longer and more distinguished career, he doesn't consider himself the all-knowing big brother. After all, Jones is the one who has led the NFL in sacks before, pulling off the feat in 2017.
"I ain't never had 17 sacks in a season, so most definitely I can learn something," Suggs said. "We're definitely picking each other's brain."
