Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians: Desmond Bishop ‘became one of my favorites real fast’

In an effort to add depth to the inside linebacker position, the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday added seven-year veteran Desmond Bishop to their roster.

Bishop, 30, spent last season with the Minnesota Vikings and met the Cardinals in Minneapolis prior to their second preseason game of 2014. The Cardinals weren’t counting on him to play Saturday against his former team, but he was given the option Saturday after completing a pair of workouts, as head coach Bruce Arians told Bickley and Marotta Monday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

“I mean, we worked him out in the weight room, then we took him out and ran the snot out of him, trying to get him in shape,” Arians said.

“So, he’s coming off the field after the double workout and I say, ‘You want to play tonight?’ And he says, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, do you know anything?'”

Arians joked that Bishop’s openness to taking the field was surprising, if not crazy.

“I said, ‘Well, if you want to play, we’ll put you in for a few snaps,'” he recalled. “He ended up playing like 15 plays. He’s directing it. He obviously knew what he was doing. He looked like a vet out there.”

In those snaps, which all came in the second half, Bishop recorded a tackle while being quick to the ball all over the field.

Prior to joining the Vikings in 2013, Bishop spent six seasons with the Green Bay Packers, with whom he won Super Bowl XLV — a game he started, registering eight tackles, including three for a loss.

Given Bishop’s play Saturday, Arians was asked by the show to assess the linebacker’s chances of making the 53-man roster. He was frank.

“After what I saw the other night, I’d say it’s high,” he said. “Very high.”

And it wasn’t just Bishop’s Saturday night against Vikings third-stringers nor his impressive resume that caught the coach’s eye. It was his attitude and desire to play that won Arians over.

“He became one of my favorites real fast,” the coach said.