Chang getting extra help in camp

By Odeen Domingo
Special to The Advertiser

TEMPE, Ariz. — Even through his facemask you can see that familiar look returning to Tim Chang's face. His eyes undaunted, unfazed.

Chang

All this with a voice screaming in his ear.

"Slide! Slide! Push back! Goooood."

Chang, a former University of Hawai'i quarterback who signed with the Arizona Cardinals as a rookie free agent, listens to the screaming man, Cardinals quarterbacks coach Mike Kruczek.

It's Chang's first day at the Cardinals' rookie development camp yesterday in the team's practice facility at Tempe, Ariz., and he doesn't want to screw up.

"It kind of feels like the first couple of days at training camp when you're a freshman," Chang said. "You're out here before the whole team is out here and you're learning."

The eight-day rookie camp is extra time for first-year players to learn the team's system. Cardinals veterans don't report for voluntary workouts until next month, so the first-year players get more attention from the coaching staff.

In Chang's case, he's the lone rookie quarterback, so working with Kruczek alone will only help.

"Where he's really going to make progress are the rookie camps, where it's just him and myself, one-on-one," Kruczek said after the Cardinals signed Chang after the NFL draft. "That's where John (Navarre, a 2004 seventh-round pick) made most of his progress last year. Most of it came on the rookie development weeks."

Navarre made the 53-man roster and started a game last season.

Chang already has shown progress.

Cardinals coach Dennis Green said Chang threw very well yesterday, especially on seven-on-seven drills.

"In fact, I think the further practice went on today, the better it went," he said. "Today I think he threw some good passes. So we're pleased."

One thing Chang said he must do is to know the Cardinals' playbook by heart. Running June Jones' complicated offensive system should help Chang's learning curve.

The hardest part for Chang, aside from knowing the schemes and different routes, is being under center, which he didn't do too often in Hawai'i's run-and-shoot offense. On most plays, Hawai'i employed a shotgun formation, which had Chang lined up about seven yards back from the center.

That inexperience has cost him. Chang fumbled two snaps yesterday during drills, which prompted Kruczek to set aside time to go through a process of taking a snap from under center.

Chang's chances of making the team may have also become more slim because the team worked out an unsigned rookie free agent quarterback, Columbia University's Jeff Otis, for 15 minutes after yesterday's practice ended. Green said Otis may or may not be signed.

But Chang, as always, is undaunted.

"I need to perform like anybody else out here," Chang said. "If you want to stay on a team, you need to perform. If you want to make it, you have to perform. That's what I'm trying to do. The best way to do that is to study my playbook like it's a final exam. When the test comes out here every day, you just try to do well."

Odeen Domingo is a writer for the Arizona Republic.