Fansided
Fansided

Arizona Cardinals take a gigantic risk hiring Kliff Kingsbury

By Erik Lambert

LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders encourages his team during the first half of the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns on November 5, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders encourages his team during the first half of the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns on November 5, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

There was never a year that signified how slanted the NFL has become in one direction than 2019. The Arizona Cardinals furthered that proof.

It’s become apparent that so many teams are obsessed with the formula of an offensive head coach paired with a top quarterback. It’s been done in the past with guys like Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, Mike Holmgren and Brett Favre, and Sean Payton and Drew Brees. However, the move that seemed to kick things into overdrive was Sean McVay arriving in Los Angeles to pair with Jared Goff.

The Green Bay Packers started things off when they hired Matt Lafleur as their replacement for Mike McCarthy. It was a curious decision. Lafleur had only one year of experience as an offensive coordinator and that year didn’t go very well. However, his connection to McVay and noted QB expertise no doubt was a huge selling point for the Packers given how badly they want to squeeze what greatness remains from Aaron Rodgers.

Amazingly that move wasn’t the boldest of offseason. Somehow the Cardinals topped it when they made Kliff Kingsbury their next head coach.

Kliff Kingsbury comes with lots of offensive prowess but lots of questions

More from NFL Mocks

Arizona had just fired Steve Wilks after one year. People thought they were trying to go after somebody a little more proven. Instead they pulled a complete swerve in hiring Kingsbury. To be fair the man comes with far more head coaching experience than Wilks, but that was in college at Texas Tech. He coached for six years there and had just two winning seasons.

So why so much interest? Kingsbury developed an array of high draft choices at quarterback including Baker Mayfield, Johnny Manziel, Davis Webb, and likely 2018 NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, That last one was no doubt the biggest selling point. Mahomes put up ridiculous numbers in Kingsbury’s system. How is it possible then that Texas Tech didn’t win a lot of games?

One might say the young coach suffers from Don Coryell Syndrome. The former NFL head coach was known for his offensive wizardry, revolutionizing the game in so many ways. Yet he never won the Super Bowl. Why? His defenses were consistently terrible. In 14 years of coaching, nine of his teams had a defense that ranked 21st or worse in points allowed.

It was pretty much the same for Kingsbury in college. No matter how many points his offense would score, the opponent always seemed to score more. The job of a head coach is to build a successful team. Not just a successful offense or defense. Kingsbury has yet to prove he can do that. Maybe he learned a valuable lesson at Texas Tech, then again if Coryell never figured it out then it’s hard to imagine if he ever will.

Home/NFL Hot Takes