Bruce Arians says Arizona Cardinals are 'usually quiet early in free agency'

For many fans, this offseason has been frustrating with the Arizona Cardinals. Nothing seems to be happening. They reportedly want all the pass rushers, but they all sign elsewhere. Their only signing is an old safety and the next visit we know of is an old cornerback.

But head coach Bruce Arians says that is the way the Cardinals like to do things. Speaking with Jenny Vrentas for an article on MMQB.com, he explains why there hasn't been a lot of noise in free agency for Arizona.

"We are usually quiet early in free agency," he explained. "We feel like we have a really good football team. We're trying to sign our guys, and then we've had a lot of luck later in free agency with some veteran players. That has kind of been our blueprint: re-sign our players, and add a few pieces to the puzzle.

"Our GM, Steve Keim, does an unbelievable job during free agency of fitting guys in our locker room and in our culture and then adding in the draft. And we've also been very lucky with college free agents; a number of them have made our team."

That's an interesting explanation to say they like to be quiet or they normally are quiet in the early stages of free agency. Why? It's because it hasn't been the case. In two of the three previous offseasons, the Cardinals signed prominent free agents to big contracts. In 2014, it was Jared Veldheer and they were reportedly going after the other big left tackle name on the market at the time -- Branden Albert.

In 2015, they signed guard Mike Iupati to a huge contract.

Those aren't quiet moves. That was the extent of their big moves, but they have been very active in free agency in the past. In fact, we have heard team president Michael Bidwill talk about being aggressive in free agency in previous years. It was just two offseasons ago when general manager Steve Keim said they would be "aggressive with offers" to their top targets.

That isn't to say they aren't going about it the right way. Keim wants to build through the draft. Maybe this year they are being quiet, but that is because there aren't many big-name targets.

Of course, they did pursue Jason Pierre Paul aggressively. Signing him would not have been quiet.

Maybe Arians is just saying stuff because Arizona has only really ever been quiet in free agency once since he and Keim took over the leadership of the team. If they  are quiet now, it is because of circumstance, not necessarily because of a plan.