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Arizona Cardinals: Josh Rosen gets Kliff Kingsbury as new HC

By Sayre Bedinger

AMES, IA - OCTOBER 27: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders celebrates with wide receiver Antoine Wesley #4 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders after he pulled in a pass in the end zone to score a touchdown in the second half of play at Jack Trice Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Ames, Iowa. The Iowa State Cyclones won 40-31 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images)
AMES, IA - OCTOBER 27: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders celebrates with wide receiver Antoine Wesley #4 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders after he pulled in a pass in the end zone to score a touchdown in the second half of play at Jack Trice Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Ames, Iowa. The Iowa State Cyclones won 40-31 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images) /
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The Arizona Cardinals took a swing for the fences and are reportedly finalizing a deal to make Kliff Kingsbury their head coach.

The Arizona Cardinals are taking a huge swing for the fences, reportedly finalizing a deal to make former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury their new head coach.

We had a feeling this might happen.

Many are criticizing the Cardinals for making this move, and perhaps rightly so. After all, didn’t Kingsbury just get fired from a Texas Tech program where he wasn’t winning a lot of games even with Patrick Mahomes at the quarterback position a couple of years ago?

Kingsbury was set to become the new offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans before he resigned from that position (or was given permission to interview with NFL teams) and started looking for jobs at the next level.

It could be reasonably assumed that Kingsbury knew one of the Jets or Cardinals would make him an offer before he backed out of his USC obligations.

Why hire Kingsbury?

The Cardinals invested in Josh Rosen as their franchise quarterback, and they need a creative offensive mind to come in and help him succeed sooner rather than later. Kingsbury can do that.

What he wasn’t able to do at Texas Tech was lead a team that scored a lot of points and prevented other teams from scoring. When he had Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback (2014-16), the Red Raiders’ defense was giving up more than 40 points to opposing teams weekly. That’s not going to get it done at any level.

Luckily for him, the Cardinals have some competent defensive talent but they will still need some revamping on that side of the ball.

The NFL is a copycat league and the Cardinals are trying to take a page out of the Los Angeles Rams’ playbook by hiring a young, hotshot offensive mind to mentor their young quarterback and put him in position to succeed.

Their plan has to include a strong defensive coordinator, someone who can take care of that whole side of the ball with Kingsbury not having to do much with it.

His focus should be entirely on the offensive side of the ball, developing Rosen and calling plays.

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Steve Keim has work to do with the roster but the Cardinals are equipped with pretty good cap space and the number one pick in the 2019 NFL Draft this offseason. They need to push the right buttons to make sure Kingsbury is surrounded with enough talent to succeed, just like McVay was when he transitioned to Los Angeles.

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