Is Bruce Arians closing in on the Arizona Cardinals coaching job, and will Ray Horton be on his staff?

The head coaching candidate carousel continues for the Arizona Cardinals. After Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell interviewed with the team and the team reportedly requested permission to interview Colts OC Bruce Arians, the news broke that Arians would interview with the team on Thursday.

The #Cardinals tentatively plan to interview #Colts OC Bruce Arians tomorrow for head coach opening, I'm told. Maybe getting closer...

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 17, 2013

That seemed to imply that he had the inside track to the job.

It turns out that Arians showed up on Wednesday and met with team officials over dinner.

Colts OC Bruce Arians is having dinner in Arizona tonight with Cardinals officials and will continue interviewing with them Thursday.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 17, 2013

Whatever the reason, this is the first report of any candidate being with team officials for more than an interview.

It would appear that the team is going hard at Arians right now, which is puzzling because his name only came up on Tuesday. If he were so high on the Cardinals' list, why was he not approached sooner? Why not until after he had been overlooked for the Chicago Bears job? And if they wanted him, why did they not try to get him away from the Bears when it was believed that he was the strongest candidate.

Now, there was a report by Arizona Sports that said that Arians was not going to retain defensive coordinator Ray Horton on his staff, as he wished to bring in Todd Bowles, whom he reportedly promised the same position on the Chicago staff.

However, Mike Jurecki on his radio show on XTRA Sports 910 refuted that, saying that the report was absolutely false, and that Horton is upset at the current situation. He also tweeted the same thing later on Wednesday.

I was told that was false. Now Horton isn'thappy w/ the current situation. @dsheffay if the reports are true about him bringing his own DC

— Mike Jurecki (@mikejurecki) January 17, 2013

What exactly does this "not being happy" mean? Is it the type of unhappy that drives one to look elsewhere, or is it the unhappy that simply means he doesn't like how things are going right now?

Could it be that this is just another erroneous report, or one that will change with the hours?

Nothing would surprise me anymore.

The positive side? We now can say that the Cardinals have the most attractive head coaching job on the market.

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