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The NFL is fickle and we see that quite often this time of year.
Arizona Cardinals fans have not been enthusiastic about Kliff Kingsbury and his coaching, especially after the bye week where the team really stumbled.
Kliff has had his struggles, but it would seem foolish to fire him heading into his third season with improvements of two wins and three wins in his first two season.
However, Cardinals fans need to look no further than the team they faced a month ago in the Philadelphia Eagles to see the life of a coach in the NFL is truly not for long.
Doug Pederson was 42-37-1 in his NFL tenure as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. He also won the teams only Super Bowl.
Three seasons later, he’s a free agent.
That’s the life of the NFL coach.
Kingsbury shouldn’t be compared to Pederson, Pederson won his Super Bowl with a backup in his second season.
However, what we can look at is how you have to make a decision on coaching.
Pederson won with Carson Wentz on the bench, but Howie Roseman made the decision to extend Wentz long-term and make him the focal point of the team.
That backfired, and now the Eagles are saddled with Wentz’s contract but also without a coach.
They have no salary cap space and who knows what their plan is.
The Eagles’ roster is old, expensive, bad, there’s seemingly no definitive answer at QB, and the salary cap situation is among the worst — if not *the* worst — in the NFL, and the owner didn’t even hint at any accountability for the GM. Baffling.
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) January 11, 2021
The #Eagles as things stand are projected to be $74 million OVER the cap with an aging roster and uncertainty at QB. Keeping Howie Roseman over Doug Pederson is ... interesting.
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardoNFL) January 11, 2021
The reason I bring this up is simple, you can’t get to “Kliff Kingsbury has to go” without looking at the guy who has constructed the roster, picked the coaches and continues to skate by.
Maybe not on this board, but when the knives came out it wasn’t for Steve Keim.
Head coaches who keep their teams competitive despite talent deficiencies, and can win (something we haven’t seen from Kliff yet) are hard to come by.
Firing Kliff won’t magically fix the fact the team lacks talent at interior offensive line, running back, and wide receiver after DeAndre Hopkins. It won’t magically manifest two competent cornerbacks, or health along the defensive front seven.
Kliff has a long way to go to show he is a reliable head coach, but firing him isn’t going to fix everything else.