From the Dominican Republic, Cardinals' Daniel Arias off to good start in quest for NFL job

The conversation began in English, but halfway through switched to Spanish. As smoothly as Daniel Arias has often looked on the practice field running his routes and catching balls at training camp, or getting downfield in coverage on special teams.

Arias, a rookie wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, can't wait to get in the end zone in an NFL game. He's got a plan for how he'll celebrate: dropping into a Dembow dance to honor his native Dominican Republic.

Inspired by former NFL wide receiver Victor Cruz and his homage to his Puerto Rican roots with salsa dances to celebrate touchdowns, Arias sought something truly Dominican. In Dembow (pronounced "Dem-BO"), he's found it — a musical genre that has been described by USA Today as "an ultrafast dance genre from the Dominican Republic that’s taking over Latin pop with its hyperactive tempo."

In other words, if Arias scores a TD Friday in the Cardinals' preseason opener against Denver — or whenever he gets into the end zone — get ready for a performance.

"When I was in elementary school, I actually read his book. I read his book and then I was like, 'I see what he's doing,'" Arias said of Cruz. "So that inspired me to start doing that. But, you know, eventually I'm gonna start doing my own thing. Dembow, they have their own kind of style of dancing and nobody (in the NFL) knows what that is like. Nobody has ever done that."

Arias just might get his chance. He entered the week listed at No. 2 on the Cardinals' first depth chart at one of the receiver positions, a sign that he's picked up concepts on offense and looked good on practice film.

It's a good start for the former Colorado standout, who at 6-foot-3 and 216 pounds is a difficult cover for the Cardinals' cornerbacks.

"He's big. He's real big," cornerback Marco Wilson said. "I think he'll be a great receiver."

It all started for Arias after he left the Dominican Republic at age six and to live in Mill Creek, Washington, a suburb north of Seattle. Arias played soccer as a kid, then first went out for football in seventh grade. That led to varsity football and track in high school, and an eventual opportunity at Colorado.

He picked up English watching cartoons on TV and got help from speech therapy, while trying to figure out why his mother fell in love with the rain and cold of the Pacific Northwest after leaving a tropical climate.

At Colorado, Arias turned into a specials teams monster, which helped him get signed by the Cardinals. Arias appeared in 50 games in college, the most ever played by a Buffaloes wide receiver. On special teams, he forced 26 fair catches, the second most in program history and was the first player down the field to interrupt a return 15 times, also the second most in school history.

Arias told Cardinals Spanish language broadcaster Luis Hernandez that he thought he might be a baseball or soccer player, given that baseball is king on the island. But he grew tall and strong, which is how got attention from coaches, and is now in the NFL.

"You don't really see a lot of Latinos playing the sport. So you know, just making a name for myself and representing the people back in the D.R.," Arias said.

The challenges of being an undrafted player trying to make an NFL roster are well-known and documented. But Arias is making an impression with special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers and on offense.

"If you want to make this team and you're not the guy, you better be a good special teamer. And if you provide value there, I mean, the amount of stories of guys who first made their inroads on special teams and then became receivers, that's a long list of very talented players," Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said. "And I was with a guy named Adam Thielen (former Minnesota Vikings star) who started in that role, and blossomed into a great receiver as well."

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Arias will be on the field Friday at State Farm Stadium to start making his case to be an NFL player.

"Yeah, he's doing a good job. I think the big thing with some of these preseason depth charts, a big deal was made out of them. But that's very fluid. I mean, we have another month before we play a game," Petzing said. "So I think it's an opportunity for those guys to go compete, but I would tell them the same thing. I wouldn't read too far into it. We all have a job that we have to earn over the next three or four weeks, and Friday night's kind of that first step."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How rookie Daniel Arias wants to represent Dominican Republic in NFL