How Arizona Cardinals CB Max Melton Overcame Rookie Growing Pains

Arizona Cardinals rookie Max Melton learned the hard way what life as an NFL cornerback was like. He got beat. In back-to-back games in late October last season against the Los Angeles Chargers and Miami Dolphins, the rookie corner struggled in coverage, calling them the two worst games of his first season. For as rough as each game was for Melton, they were also lessons. 'Shoot, getting beat is going to teach you, you know what I'm saying?' Melton, who Arizona selected in the second round of the 2024 draft, told ESPN. 'You can show people getting beat, but until it happens to you, that's when you're really going to correct it.' When the calendar flipped to November, Melton started figuring out how to marry the mental side of playing cornerback with the physical. And he took off, playing consistent football that caught the eye of his coaches and showed his growth right around the time most rookies hit a wall. To Melton, his late-season improvement was due to having more confidence and understanding the why behind the calls, the coverage and his role. 'That's everything,' Melton said. 'That's almost as important as the initial message. So, you could play man but if you don't know why we're playing man or why a certain type of man and a receiver runs a certain route where you're supposed to be outside leverage and you run the out route and [the receiver] completes it, OK, you didn't know that you had safety help on the inside or you had a robber on the inside.' If you knew the why of the call, you would be outside and stay outside, knowing you got inside help. So, that's just one example, but just knowing the why behind the calls is very important.' One way that cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith saw Melton's growth throughout the season was by Melton's understanding of the weekly game plans. They change every week, which meant Melton's role, responsibilities and technique also changed every week. He had to learn how to erase the previous week's plan from his head and learn, memorize and execute that new week's plan. 'I think Max has done a really good job of being a student of the game and learning and getting better in that aspect,' Smith said. Cardinals cornerback Max Melton didn’t allow a touchdown in the 2024 season. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Once Melton started to understand the psychological side of his position, it helped with implementing his technique, which also took time to adapt. The Cardinals ask their cornerbacks to learn about eight techniques, coach Jonathan Gannon said. Most teams, he added, ask their corners to learn about four. Melton described the techniques in the NFL as'very different.' With the Cardinals, he presses cloud coverage and Cover 2. At Rutgers, he'd start 10 yards off the line of scrimmage in both coverages and come down to five. Defensive coordinator Nick Rallis was pleased with how Melton's press coverage improved over the season. When Melton found a weakness in his game during the season, such as on his inside releases, he would go out to practice 10 minutes early to rep that specific move. The constant reps, Melton said, were important to him making strides throughout the season. Melton said it also helped that when he studied film on his tablet, he'd hear a voiceover from coaches explaining what he was seeing. 'There's a lot to that position because it's a high stressful position in terms of winning one-on-ones, but then there's also a lot of thinking,' Rallis said. 'And, so, really, to me, both those things have elevated throughout the season.' Gannon thought Melton's real-time decision-making and spatial recognition improved throughout the year, but he wanted Melton to go through the cycle of being a corner: Make plays but also make mistakes, win and lose at the point of attack. They all are, Gannon said, learning experiences. 'What he is doing with his body, where he needs to be and he's not making the mistakes he was earlier in the year just from an eye discipline to an alignment standpoint,' Gannon said, 'he's taking the coaching, and he's running with it.' Melton looked at his rookie years as a 'growing season.' He was targeted 44 times and gave up 26 catches for 359 yards but didn't allow a touchdown. Melton's plan this offseason is to get more into the details. He feels like he has his techniques and role down, so the next few months will be spent working on knowing where his help is and how to play in more complex situations. 'Just progressing from that,' he said. 'Learning from your mistakes and just keep getting better as a player, so that's where I'm at, where I'm at now.' It's only going to get better from here.'