Arizona Cardinals assistant coach Q&A: Israel Woolfork

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In our final assistant coach spotlight Q&A for the 2025 season, we hear from Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork.

The guy everyone calls Izzy talks about working with Jacoby Brissett, what he’s learned from an unsuccessful season and what he believes about Kyler Murray.

Q: You've known Jacoby for a long time. What has he shown you over the last however many years that you might not have known about him?

A: It was my first year in Cleveland and in the NFL (when Jacoby was there), so I was drinking out of a fire hose at the time, and I was just trying to stay above water, so I didn't really get to dial into how he prepared and how determined he was in the day-to-day operations to get ready for the game. But he has one of the best routines and finding a young quarterback moving forward, I would love for them to just see what a professional looks like. And see what you have to do to prepare every day to be successful on Sunday.

Q: How do you evaluate his season when you look at the top-ranked quarterbacks? It's been good. But he's won once, and he's also dealing with a roster that's been changing a lot.

A: Obviously, as a competitor, you want to win. That's the main goal. But if he totals 50 yards or totals 300 yards, that's the goal. I thought he's helped us, helped the team be in position where we are competitive in those games at times. A lot of those came down to close losses. But overall, I thought he's done a really good job of just being explosive in the pass game and also just standing tough in the pocket. He's standing there making throws, and putting guys in position for success.

Q: When you talk about his routine, what really stands out about him?

A: His prep from the standpoint of finding answers. We don't leave the meeting room unless we have answers versus coverage, pressure, time, situational football. What do you want me to do? Where should my eyes go? Where should the checkdown go? And I think that's helped him play faster. And I think that's a credit to a lot of how he's been playing. He's been very detailed on what we are asking him to do and what are those answers to those problems that could come up.

Q: How has he dealt with the fact that he hasn’t had those winning results?

A: It's why we do what do. It's the hardest thing in this profession because you are judged by wins and losses, but that's why we love it. To come back, put in that much time and effort you do into something, and you're not getting results, but you come in the next day and you have that same attitude, that same mindset; that shows you how much he loves that. He's just a competitor and everybody in that building has that same feel for him and the team.

Q: As a coach, what did you learn about yourself kind of throughout this season with all the different things you've had to deal with in your room?

A: I thought my first year was wild, especially Kyler (Murray) coming off an injury and then you had (Joshua) Dobbs, had Clayton (Tune), then Kyler coming back. I thought that was interesting. This year I think, kind of tops it a bit (laughs). But I think looking forward on my career, I think this is going to be one of the best years. I think the experiences that I've had, the stuff that we have had to overcome as an organization and how we have had to continue to reinvent ourselves week to week based off of who we have playing. And it's forced us to be better coaches, truthfully. I don't think anyone in that building has had a “woe-is-me” attitude. I think everyone comes in, we understand who we have and who's playing and who's healthy and the opponent. What's the best plan we can put in and what's the best way we can get these guys to have success?

Obviously, I would love to have the “Monstars” out there playing, but that's not the case. I think we have continued to just put ourselves in a position where we've looked at the game from a technical standpoint and look at what guys are really good at and how to put them in those lights and avoid the other situations where they may have some weaknesses.

Q: Does that help you as a coach when the two guys that you've worked with as your starter have such different skill sets. I imagine you're teaching in a very different way with those two guys.

A: Conceptually, it stays the same, but physically obviously you got two different styles of quarterbacks. So then it's just like how do we address the pass game and how do we match it up with the run game? I think if you looked at how we've run the ball with Kyler at quarterback versus Jacoby; more pistol gun action with Kyler, more under center action and gap scheme and stuff with Jacoby and now it's just kind of just flipping the protections and routes to also match what their skill sets are.

Q: Speaking of Kyler, you've been with him for a couple of years now. You've seen him transition from that role of being the starting guy to being on injured reserve and kind of play that part in the film room where he's not necessarily the guy. How have you seen him handle that?

A: It's been frustrating for him, obviously. He's been supportive to his teammates, and he's really just been focused on getting healthy. And then when he sees things, because I think he has one of the best like spatial awareness when it comes to playing football; when he sees things on the field, he'll come up and he'll speak his mind. Just trying to be supportive as much as you can to Jacoby.

Q: There's always a lot of pressure when it comes to being the No. 1 pick. And then since he hasn't played much, people maybe forget what he can do. Has your opinion or perspective of Kyler changed over the past year of what he can do and what he can be in this league?

A: Not at all. I haven’t wavered even a little bit. I think he's a proven guy in NFL and I think he's put this team in a position to win games and we saw that earlier this year. We had some tough losses while he's playing quarterback. I think the biggest thing for him is he was frustrated from the injury standpoint that he couldn't put himself back on the field.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals QB coach talks Jacoby Brissett, Kyler Murray

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