For the 74-year old Tom Moore, coaching with Bruce Arians and the Arizona Cardinals is a dream.
"I'm a people person," Moore said at his introductory press conference on Friday as the new assistant head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. "I have great, great respect for Bruce Arians. We worked together with the Indianapolis Colts. Bruce is a winner and I want to be with a winner. As soon as he called me, I told my wife, 'honey, we just hit the lotto'."
Moore was forced to 'retire' after the 2010 season due to a bad pair of knees. He still worked closely with teams in the NFL, being hired on as a consultant with the Jets, but he simply had an itch to get back into coaching. After having his knees replaced, Moore is now back in the game.
"Don't worry about my chronological age," he said. "I feel like I'm about 50.
"When Bruce gave me this opportunity, I jumped on it. I've still got a lot of coaching to do. I love coaching. I've lived a dream. To be able to continue to coach, it's a privilege."
Preconceived notions, as Bruce Arians said back at his introductory press conference, are not going to be brought in with this new regime regarding the quarterback position. Moore emphasized that his job will be to match the players he works with with their strengths and not try to push a certain system on them.
The same goes with the offensive line. Moore said he will diagnose their strengths and put in a system around what they are good at. If they are trap players, straight line players, zone blockers, it doesn't matter. They will play to their strengths.
"Everything in the passing game starts with protection," Moore said. "That's the biggest thing. There's all kinds of pass patterns, all good pass patterns put the single biggest thing that you've got to work on first and establish each week is your pass protection."
Both Moore and Arians like to throw the ball deep, so ensuring that a good pass protecting offensive line is in place will be key. Last season, the offensive line was a large issue for the Cardinals, allowing more sacks than any other team. Moore doesn't seem to be all too worried about that statistic, though.
"That's history," he said. "I don't deal in the past."
Hopefully the rest of the Cardinals offense is a thing of the past as well.
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