Arizona Cardinals: Who to blame for Isaiah Simmons’ limited snap count?

Kliff Kingsbury is now 20 games into his NFL coaching career. After such a short stint is it fair to blame him for the lack of snaps for Isaiah Simmons?

Kliff Kingsbury is an offensive-minded and focused head coach. If you don’t agree, then I encourage you to look back at past press conferences, Arizona Cardinals Flight Plan episodes, or any other media where Kingsbury talks about or redirects defensive questions.

That being said, I believe Kingsbury does have some connections and input on the defensive side of the ball. The problem is his extremely loose leash on Vance Joseph which leaves the major decisions in his court and Kingsbury seems to follow most of his suggestions no matter the severity or impact to the team.

This is the one area that I believe Kingsbury is at fault. Kingsbury made it clear in 2019 that Kyler Murray would enter the season with no competition before ever seeing him in practice. He knew with Murray the role of a first-round pick was to play early and play often but his belief in Joseph seems to have convinced him to forget that concept.

If he agreed that Simmons was the correct choice in the first round as the first player taken at his position he had to believe he was ready to start or at the bare minimum earn meaningful reps by Week 4.

Therefore, I only place blame on Kingsbury due to his belief in Joseph who continues to show he is not ready for the role of a head coach or defensive coordinator in this league. This leads me to the person that has the most blame in not getting an early impact from Simmons, Vance Joseph.