The phrase is not unique to the Cardinals, but as the team embarks on the regular season with significant doubt of the Cardinals' success emanating from the outside, first-year head coach Mike LaFleur makes sure his players understand to "ignore the noise."

It's important enough to appear on a wall in the locker room, to have a veteran like Budda Baker bring it up in a press conference.

Yet in the in-your-face world we all live it, ignoring the noise is not a simple task.

"Listen, ignore might be the wrong word," LaFleur said Friday. "You're naturally going to see it. It is what it is. That's just life in general. Really, it's more (being) above the noise. Because it is just noise. It doesn't matter. Not saying people's words don't matter, per se, but it doesn't matter in our locker room.

"Same thing happens when you are winning a ton of games. Forget all that too. That's just noise, when people want to crown you. This is a week-to-week league, and our focus is going to be 1-0 every single week, and above all that is playing good football."

(I remember when Denny Green wondered about crowning the Bears. But I digress.)

The first game for a new head coach is always fascinating. The offense, LaFleur's strength, looked good in the preseason. What the Cardinals put on the field is a mystery, even to an extent to the Cardinals themselves. Even with a difficult schedule, I think the Cardinals will be better than what many think. What that means in terms of victories, I have no idea.

But yes, the Cardinals need to be above the noise. LaFleur knows how that works. He been around enough success. Now, starting with the Chargers in L.A., we see how that translates into football games that count.

-- GM Monti Ossenfort said Friday on the "Wolf and Luke" show on Arizona Sports that outside linebacker Josh Sweat had an "offseason procedure," presumably on his knee. That would explain better Sweat landing on the PUP list as camp started.

Sweat looked explosive in the open part of Friday's practice as he returned to full work. Sweat has not addressed the media since after the finale against the Rams in January.

-- If I had to guess, it'll be that Jeremiyah Love plays. How much I am not sure. If he was hurting, however, I don't think he'd be out there. We will know more Saturday, if the Cardinals elevate running back Evan Hull from the practice squad. Or if they don't.

-- Carson Beck is QB3 on the depth chart, but with the recent NFL rule change of a couple years ago, he will be dressed as the emergency third QB against the Chargers.

-- It has been noted that former first-round pick Darius Robinson is listed as a backup on the depth chart, and noted that all those defensive linemen are going to rotate into the game – meaning the starting spot in that unit especially doesn't mean as much.

But Dante Stills, the former sixth-round pick who is listed as the starter ahead of Robinson, still feels blessed to have that honor.

"At the same time I have to go out there and show why I belong up there," Stills said. "It's all great before the season, 'Oh, look, he's the starter!' But I have to produce on how I know I can."

The defensive line is under a white-hot spotlight. There is Stills and Roy Lopez, back after a year away, and Walter Nolen III as starters, with Robinson, Andrew Billings and L.J. Collier part of the crew.

"A lot of people don't think we're capable of being a high-level D-line," Stills said. "The past years, I don't think we produced as much as we should, but this year I think we're all on the same page. I feel like we all have a chip on our shoulder that we didn't have. For me, it's Year 4. It's either go or be gone."

Stills called it the most important year of his career as he heads into the final season of his rookie contract. But in a lot of ways it's a crucial year for many on the unit.

-- The whole defense will be interesting to watch. The Chargers now have Mike McDaniel calling plays for QB Justin Herbert, so the look from L.A. will be different from "normal" Jim Harbaugh teams.

-- LaFleur has called plays before, but obviously not as a head coach. There are other parts of the game that touch the top guy during a game – challenges, for instance – but LaFleur noted a coach will "lean of a team" of others to help guide him through.

One person in particular is Kenny Bell, the team's director of football strategy. Bell came to the Cardinals in 2019 with Kliff Kingsbury after serving as Kingsbury's right-hand man at Texas Tech. But when Kingsbury was fired in Arizona, Bell remains, finding an important role with new coach Jonathan Gannon and staying in place with LaFleur.

LaFleur said there was a specific situation that played out in Week 18 at Los Angeles with LaFleur on the other sideline that impressed him how Bell operated. After minicamp and before camp, Bell texted LaFleur with one situation per day to talk out how the head coach wanted to operate in-game.

"I aways respected the process how Arizona did things," LaFleur said.

-- For the first time since 2016, the Cardinals have a new long snapper. Casey Kreiter made an impact early too, being named a captain representing special teams.

"It means everything," Kreiter said. "It's probably the greatest honor I've ever had as a football player."

Kreiter has been in the league since 2016 – he replaced Aaron Brewer for the Broncos, and coincidentally is doing the same thing for the Cardinals – having never missed a game in a decade. He made a Pro Bowl in 2018. That kind of track record can provide a comfortable living in the league. Kind of.

"Um, I don't know if comfort is the right word," Kreiter said with a smile. "I've signed 11 one-year contracts. If you are competent in the position and not a liability and are proficient in the areas teams value, you can have comfort there will be value for you. But the best thing you can do to have comfort is help the team win."

-- Random drive-by good vibes tweet this week from Chargers safety and former No Fly Zone OG Tony Jefferson, who responded to a complimentary tweet about how the Cardinals fan base is "chill."

"They're a dope ass fan base - underrated too. Loved my first 4 years there, always respect there (sic)," Jefferson wrote.

Love Tony. But he's on the other side this week.

-- OK, that was a long post to start the season. That just tells me it's time to finally play.

See you Sunday.