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Arizona Cardinals success with Bruce Arians would be changing history

Head coaches that get their first full-time gig after age 60 don't do so well.

By Jess Root
Christian Petersen

When the Arizona Cardinals hired Bruce Arians to be their head coach, you could easily argue that he was the best candidate on the market. He has a long career of working with and developing young quarterbacks, leading good offenses and with his 2012 experience stepping in for Chuck Pagano, he also got his feet wet as a head coach. He also was the 2012 Coach of the Year.

The perfect candidate to turn things around, right?

Well, he also happens to be 60 years old (60 and sexy, in his own words). First time head coaches that are in their 60s don't do so well historically.

Football Outsiders recently published their 2013 Almanac (a great purchase, which you can make here), and in the section about the Arizona Cardinals, there is an ominous chart for Cardinals fans regarding the history Arians and the team are facing.

Here it is:

Coaches_medium

Now, Arians has inherited a solid defense talent-wise, he has an established veteran quarterback in Carson Palmer, a Hall of Fame receiver in Larry Fitzgerald and a general manager that is improving the offensive line to build sustained offensive success.

He also is coaching in a division expected to be the toughest in football with a schedule that is considered difficult.

History says that we will see more of what we have seen record wise since the team came to Arizona.

Can he change that history?

To do so would be going against Cardinals history AND coaching history in general.

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