When center Hjalte Froholdt signed a two-year contract as an unrestricted free agent one week into the 2023 league year, there were very few outside the Arizona Cardinals building that paid much attention or were impressed.
However, the Cardinals had a feeling what they were getting and now he appears entrenched as the team’s center after starting all 17 games last season.
When asked what attracted the team to Froholdt last offseason, head coach Jonathan Gannon noted those on the Cardinals staff that were with him in Cleveland the season before: assistant coaches Drew Petzing and Israel Woolfork, as well as strength and conditioning coach Evan Marcus.
“Personal character, football character. Type of teammate that he is. The work that he puts into being a pro and a good player,” Gannon said. “We all felt like, and we had some inside intel with Drew being there and Iz being there and Evan Marcus being there with him; they all jumped on the table and said this guy is gonna do that; all he needs to do is play and that’s what Yelda’s done.”
Recalling last year, Petzing said Monday, “(General manager) Monti (Ossenfort), JG, the entire front office, they do a great job of picking our brains with guys that we’ve been around. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in this league, I think this is year 12, being around a number of guys in different organizations so when those guys hit free agency or they might be available for different reasons, there’s always this conversation of, ‘Hey, what’s he like from a character standpoint, what’s he like from a physical ability standpoint, how does he fit our locker room.’
“I think those guys do a great job of taking that information and managing it and making great decisions for the organization. It certainly makes my job easier.”
As for how Froholdt has made them all look good and what it was they liked, Petzing said, “The attitude, the effort, the intensity, we were able to see it and he played for us in Cleveland due to a number of injuries. Played guard, played center, so we saw his ability to mentally pick it up, physically go do it.
“Also knowing that at the time, it was probably Year 3 or 4 for him, he hadn’t played a ton of football up to that point and for a guy with that work ethic who takes the job so seriously, seeing a little bit of success and saying if you know he’s going to work at it and he’s smart and he’s on the right trajectory, you would expect that to only continue with more playing time, so that was exciting to see as we were able to bring him in the building.”
Still, don’t tell Froholdt that he is assured of a job.
“Every time you start thinking that you’re in a good spot or safe, I think you start getting complacent,” Froholdt said last week. “I’m still trying not to think that about my spot. I’ve been traveling around the league for quite a while and I’m happy to have found a place that I like to call home right now and I enjoy it and I’m just trying to have fun, so it’s a good camp to go into like just trying to have fun, smile a lot, laugh a lot, score a lot of points, which is super fun.
“But just trying to be relaxed in it, just being grateful for being in the position to be playing a sport for a living. It’s pretty cool to go out there and fool around with the boys. So pretty stoked.”
Stoked might be an understatement of the personality he brings to the line room and the team.
He began his media briefing by opening a protein drink and saying, I’m just trying to get my protein. Let’s go!”
Froholdt riffed on tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and ended the session by detailing his plan for lifting weights.
“I wanna go to just a stonemason, just be like, can you just chop me up some natural rocks?” he said “I need a 100-pounder, 150-pounder, 200-pounder, 250-pounder. And just put them outside as decorations. But we all know what they’re for. That’d be super fun. Just be the alpha on the street. Just carrying around rocks. Sounds sick.”
Gannon loves that “sick” part of Froholdt. Asked to describe him a couple days later, the head coach said, “Dirt dog,” and then admitted he’d be “going off the cuff,” by adding, “Meathead, ultra intelligent, but like keeps the main thing the main thing like I want to pick up a rock and carry it around. I want to crush 40 grams of protein when I’m talking to you guys because I need protein. I kind of love that, but it all goes back to that’s what he does to make sure that he’s on point. You know what I mean? So it kind of all correlates back to what I said.
“But I love some of things he does. We were actually watching the UFC fights and I’m like this is boring. I’m going to bed and he was like you gotta love it blood on blood. This guy snapping this guy’s arm and I’m going this is boring, I’d rather go watch the Olympics. But he just enjoys that barbaric part of the game. I’ve been around different guys that are kind of different ways, you know what I mean? That’s what’s cool about him is he’s so intelligent. So then you pair that with that other side of him and he’s a cool personality to be around. I love the guy.”
An example is what he said about Johnson.
“He’s already trying to be like a cool vet … super annoying,” Froholdt claimed. “But he’s doing good. Paris carries with him a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of grit and push and it’s like you can make fun about of like, ‘Geez, you don’t have to go so hard,’ but in the end he still pushes everybody else with it.
“He runs down the field and I wanna run down the field and everybody else wants to run down the field, finishing things. Or he does something good or he sees someone do good, he gets them hyped up so he’s got that like constantly go-mentality, which is cool to see especially from a guy who’s potentially considered safe in a way. He’s constantly looking to get better and better so that’s impressive to see.”
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