TEMPE, Ariz. -- It’s a question new Arizona Cardinals guard Evan Mathis gets all the time.
How long does an offensive line, especially one that’s replacing three starters, need to become a cohesive unit to protect its quarterback?
"There’s so many factors that go into that: How much work you put in together off the field, how much experience you get together on the field, and the different types of situations you end up in," Mathis said. "You’re not always going to be in the same situations in practice and in games. There’s a lot that goes into that.
"Some guys pick it up really fast, and sometimes it takes guys to get thrown into more challenges than others because they jell. I’m looking forward to this unit doing it pretty fast."
The Cardinals are, too.
Mathis will be one of three new members of the Cardinals' offensive line this season. He replaced the combination of Jonathan Cooper and Ted Larsen at right guard, when he signed with the Cardinals on March 16. Arizona will also have a new center (Lyle Sendlein is still a free agent), and right tackle after Bobby Massie signed with the Chicago Bears early in free agency.
Who the starters will be Week 1 against New England, however, remains unclear.
A week into the Cardinals’ offseason workout program, the preliminary offensive line appears to be Mathis, D.J. Humphries at right tackle, A.Q. Shipley at center, and returning starters Mike Iupati at left guard and Jared Veldheer at left tackle. Though everyone except Mathis were teammates last season in Arizona, they have not all played together before.
But as the Cardinals have shown in the past, the offensive line in April might not be the offensive line in September. In 2013, with Massie coming off 16 starts as a rookie, Arizona signed Eric Winston right before training camp to be the right tackle. And last year, when Shipley spent all offseason as the first-team center, the Cardinals signed Sendlein in early August. He was starting by Week 1.
So, even though the first-team offensive line might be far from set, the potential starters began the process of getting to know each other in a football scenario last Monday on the opening day of workouts.
"It’s going to be a challenge," quarterback Carson Palmer said. "Those guys have a lot of continuity that they need to get caught up with each other (on) and figure each other out, get used to the way each other calls protections and the different things that happens up front.
"It’s a great group going into camp."
In three weeks, the process takes another step, when Arizona takes the field for the start of organized team activities and minicamp. It’s then, that the line’s bonding will begin accelerating.
Palmer understands the business of the NFL, which rarely allows the same five offensive linemen to return to a team year after year. Palmer has lined up behind three different starting offensive lines (15 different combinations) since 2013 in Arizona. But his philosophy for a unit coming together is simple.
"You just work," Palmer said. "There is no secret. It’s just work and it’s repetitions. You can’t fake those repetitions. You have to get those reps in. You can’t sit in a meeting room and watch film and do it. There are things that have to happen on the field when a guy that’s coming off the edge or a blitz is coming up the 'A' gap that you have to change a call or you have to pat your butt or whatever the signals are for the running backs. Those things you just have to rep."
Getting to the level of comfort and familiarity with each other began last week in the classroom. The work put in sitting on chairs and behind tables while the picturesque green of the practice fields teased through the windows couldn’t be understated by Mathis.
“It’s really about paying attention in the meeting room, working hard on your assignments, your techniques and your footwork, and your communication,” Mathis said. “If you can get all those down, then it’ll really accelerate the process of jelling and playing well together.”
Developing a chemistry, even for offensive linemen, doesn’t happen immediately or even over the course of a week, Mathis said.
It takes time.
“A lot goes into developing those relationships off the field and in these workouts, learning how to communicate with each other and hanging out with each other, getting to know each other,” Mathis said. “That really does translate over to the field.”
But the practice field and meeting rooms are only two of the venues in which an offensive line’s chemistry is built. Often times, the bonding takes place away from the field.
A few years ago, the Cardinals’ offensive linemen used to drink beer together every week. Some, in the past, have golfed together, or gone to dinners as a group.
One important test for the new linemen this year will be tasting Veldheer’s home-brewed beers, joked Veldheer, who quarterback Carson Palmer believes will be a Pro Bowler this season. Beer can make any situation better, but especially when a group of offensive linemen, some just trying to break the ice, get together.
The seven-year pro knows, though, that for the Cardinals’ offensive line to become a singular, cohesive group, it’ll need more than beer.
“I think just time,” Veldheer said. “It just takes time. It takes the spring. It takes training camp. By the end of training camp it’s pretty much there and you’re ady to roll.”