For a four-game stretch midseason as a rookie, the Cardinals made sure to get Isaiah Adams some snaps. It wasn't a ton -- 86 for the guard -- but it was a start. And that start led later to starts, with Adams inserted into the right guard role for the last five games of the season, playing every snap.

"It was tough but I wouldn't trade it for the world," Adams said on the "Big Red Rage."

The conversation about the guard position has been a popular topic, and the Cardinals' original starter at right guard last season, Will Hernandez, remains available as a free agent -- although he is still rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered in Week 5. Adams, however, was a third-round pick in 2024, a choice high enough to hope he'd be ready to slide permanently into the role sooner rather than later.

There are weeks to go and a whole training camp to play out, but it is Adams in pole position to get that chance.

"He got thrown a little into a fire last year, and what better way than to get tossed in there," starting center Hjalte Froholdt said. "Make some mistakes and learn from it."

One of the needs for the 6-foot-4, 315-pound Adams was to get stronger, and he said that had been his main goal coming into the offseason. He also wanted to improve his grasp of the playbook.

"I can feel the strength and I can feel the game slowing down," Adams said.

Signing a veteran late into the offseason/into training camp isn't unheard of. That could still happen. But with a veteran like that at one guard already -- left guard Evan Brown -- it feels natural that Monti Ossenfort and Jonathan Gannon would like to fill the other spot with a homegrown, developed draft pick while building the offensive line. Adams is working to be that guy and remain in the place where he spent the final five games last season.