The incoming rookie class will have to adjust to the NFL and being on an NFL team differently than in the past. Typically, rookie spent many, many hours in the team facility, are around teammates, do workouts and drills together.
That isn’t happening yet, as everything so far in the offseason must be virtual, so connecting with new teammates can be a challenge for rookies.
The Cardinals’ fourth-round draft pick, defensive lineman Leki Fotu, has someone to help.
Fotu has not yet reached out to his veteran teammates yet but has reached out to one player he knows.
“I’ve been trying to see the right time to reach out to my teammates, especially the vets, just to get to know them and ask questions learning the playbook and everything,” he said in a video conference with reporters earlier in the week. “But one of the guys that’ give talked to recently is one of my old teammates, (outside linebacker) Kylie Fitts.”
Fitts and Fotu played together at the University of Utah in 2016 and 2017 and now are Cardinals teammates. Fitts, drafted in the sixth round in 2018 by the Chicago Bears, joined the Cardinals last year in September, signing with the practice squad and getting time on the roster in December.
They both are thrilled to be together again. “He’s really excited to have one of his boys down there and I’m excited to see him down there,” Fotu, who has yet to move to Arizona, said.
Rather than just reach out directly to new teammates he does not know yet, Fotu is going to lean on Fitts to transition to having a relationship with the other players on the team.
“Having that relationship that we had here at Utah and knowing that I have one of my old teammates there is going to definitely help with the move down there,” he said. “Also with him being there already having the relationship with the other guys, I feel that it’s going to help me build that relationship with them and everyone else in the D-line room and the entire team when I get down there and start with them.”
It would appear that Fotu wants to get up to speed with some of the mental parts of the NFL before anything.
“I’m trying to play catchup to their level but trying to understand the playbook first, but if I have any questions, I reach out to my D-line coach,” he said. “If I have any issue with anything or questions about anything, I make sure to talk to my old teammate Kylie and, sooner or later, I’ll be talking to everyone else also.”
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Ep. 266
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Ep.265
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