Arizona Cardinals coach unhappy with how Robert Nkemdiche showed up to camp
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Robert Nkemdiche’s fourth – and possibly final – season with the Arizona Cardinals is getting off to a bad start.
As you may have noticed, NFL teams are beginning training camp. Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury recently met with the media. When he was asked Nkemdiche, the coach made it clear he’s not happy with the former Ole Miss defensive tackle.
“Not in shape, I guess. And that’s kind of where we’ll leave it,” Kingsbury told reporters. “I mean, he’s on PUP and he’s working through that. When he is cleared, we’ll work with him.”
As Kingsbury references, Nkemdiche begins camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list as he is rehabbing from an ACL injury last season. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Kingsbury and the Cardinals are disappointed with how Nkemdiche is handling his rehab. It’s not often we hear rehabbing players called out in the press for being out of shape.
Earlier this offseason, the team declined a fifth-year option on the former first-round pick. While it doesn’t guarantee Nkemdiche will leave Arizona after 2019, it does mean the team would have to re-sign him as a free agent.
I asked Kliff Kingsbury for his thoughts on how 4th-year DT Robert Nkemdiche showed up to camp this year: ““Not in shape, I guess. And that’s kind of where we’ll leave it. I mean, he’s on PUP and he’s working through that. When he is cleared, we’ll work with him.”
— Josh Weinfuss (@joshweinfuss) July 26, 2019
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
