Sports360AZ
It’s been two weeks since the Cardinals let Ken Whisenhunt and Rod Graves go. Since then, the general manager position has been filled, but the head coaching search continues.
Things have been relatively quiet over at the Cardinals facility, as each passing minute brings more questions and more speculation as to whom team president Michael Bidwill will name as the team’s new head coach.
What we do know is that the Cardinals have interviewed defensive coordinator Ray Horton, Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley and most recently, Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden.
Right now, that’s the extent of where we are with the search.
Right before this process began, Bidwill said he would look within the college ranks to see if there’s anyone there that interests him, but it’s yet to be determined if Bidwill decided to go that route.
Anyone who’s watched the Cardinals even remotely this season saw, arguably, the worst offense in the league week in and week out.
This was a Cardinals offense that had absolutely zero continuity at all on offense. The quarterbacking situation was a disaster, the offensive line – even though it did tighten up once rookie tackles Nate Potter and Bobby Massie got their feet under them – was a MASH unit all season, right along with the running game.
No wonder why the offense was ranked dead last at the end of the season, and hovered near the bottom all season long.
No continuity means no success.
It’s not a coincidence that of the four men I mentioned earlier that the Cardinals have met with, three of them work on the offensive side of the football for their respective teams.
Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer is reporting that the Cardinals will be bringing McCoy back for a second interview on Tuesday.
McCoy has more free time now to meet with teams, after the Broncos were eliminated in the playoffs over the weekend by the Ravens.
McCoy is scheduled to meet with the Chargers today regarding their head coaching vacancy.
McCoy has been the Broncos OC for the past four years. This season, with the help of a guy by the name of Peyton Manning and others, McCoy “coordinated” the fourth best offense in the NFL.
Denver scored 481 points during the regular season, and averaged nearly 400 yards of offense per game.
Put those numbers alongside the Cardinals offensive numbers [250 points, 263.1 ypg], and you can see that’s quite a disparity isn’t it?
Looking at those numbers, it’s not hard to see why Bidwill and the Cardinals are bringing McCoy back for a second time.
One thing McCoy, Haley and Gruden have in common is that they got quality play from their quarterbacks pretty much all season long.
Haley had the “worst” of it, because Ben Roethlisberger missed three games this season due to various injuries, while Peyton Manning and Andy Dalton were bulletproof, missing none.
Despite missing those three games, Roethlisberger still managed to pass for more yards [3,265 to 3,005] and throw more touchdowns [26 to 11] than all four Cardinals quarterbacks COMBINED.
My point is that these three OC’s, with consistent play from their field generals, put up very good numbers offensively.
In a perfect world, the entire Cardinals offense, from top to bottom, would’ve been healthy this season, and Kevin Kolb or John Skelton would’ve put up Manning type numbers, and we’d be talking about the Cardinals playing in the NFC Championship Game this coming weekend.
Alas, that’s not our reality. Our reality is that injuries and inconsistent play on the offensive side of the ball put this team where it is today, and it’s up to either Horton, McCoy, Haley or Gruden – depending on who the Cardinals choose – to make sure this kind of offense is never seen again in Arizona.
Tuesday will be a big day for the Cardinals and McCoy. Is the second interview the one where Bidwill decides that McCoy is the man he wants and he offers him the position?
Who knows? One thing’s for sure though: Bidwill isn’t quick to make a snap hire, just like he wasn’t quick to make a snap fire with Whisenhunt and Graves after the 58-0 massacre in Seattle, Wash.
You might not like the timing of it all, and how long it’s taking for the Cardinals to name a head coach, but, like in life, it’s all about the right timing, and clearly that time hasn’t come quite yet for the Cardinals.
