The Arizona Cardinals have a lot riding on their next coaching hire. They’re locked into a five-year deal with Kyler Murray averaging $46.1 million. In all, $189 million is guaranteed to the quarterback over the next five seasons. In other words, the coach’s success depends on Murray’s success. Arizona must be careful if this is going to work.
Cardinals Head Coach Candidates Ranked 1-4
Owner Michael Bidwill said he’d like to hire a general manager first, although it is not required. While only four names are currently in the running, the list will undoubtedly grow over the coming days and weeks, and the rankings will be updated accordingly.
The Cardinals overachieved in 2021, proving that anything can happen in the small 17-game sample that is an NFL season. Things crumbled in 2022, and the Cardinals finished with the third-worst record in the league.
1) DeMeco Ryans
Good NFL players rarely ever become good NFL coaches. That is not the case for DeMeco Ryans, one of the few former Pro Bowlers to become a difference-making play-caller at the highest level.
It shouldn’t be surprising to see Ryans’ defenses be so detailed. Nick Saban has always been at the forefront of defensive innovation at the college level, even back in the early 2000s when Ryans played under him.
Ryans went on to win Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2006 and was a second-team All-Pro in his second season. He parlayed an incredibly successful, decade-long playing career into a job with the 49ers as a defensive analyst in 2017.
Robert Saleh was the defensive coordinator for first-year head coach Kyle Shanahan. But Saleh and Ryans knew one another from their time together in Houston, where the former was a defensive quality control and assistant linebackers coach.
Ryans must have shown unbelievable promise as a coach because he was the 49ers’ linebackers coach after just one season. After three years in that position, he became the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. Since then, they’ve been arguably the most dominant defensive unit in the NFL.
Josh Norman started 14 games for the 49ers last season, and somehow Ryans not only made it work but made the 49ers a top-10 unit with bottom-tier CB play.
2) Sean Payton
Sean Payton has won a Super Bowl and spent most of his career coaching a vertically-challenged quarterback in Drew Brees. Payton’s 152-89 record gives him one of the highest career-winning percentages in league history. He’s seen as a bit of a QB whisperer, but Payton also comes with a critical downside.
The Cardinals would need to trade for Payton. If Arizona were a head coach away from a run, that wouldn’t matter as much. However, the Cardinals’ roster bears the resemblance of a 500-piece puzzle given to a toddler to solve.
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In other words, they need every single pick afforded to them, and their premium draft capital is the most important. They need star power and depth.
Does Payton really want to oversee what appears to be a multi-season rebuild process?
3) Vance Joseph
Vance Joseph had the time of his life a season ago as the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator. An undermanned unit finished inside the top 10 in most defensive efficiency metrics. And while that was an unsustainable feat, what Joseph accomplished with that unit demands respect.
Joseph failed as the Denver Broncos head coach during his first stint. But when your quarterbacks are a mix between Brock Osweiler, Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, and Case Keenum, it’s fair to say he never got a fair shake. Joseph is a good defensive coach, but the roster doesn’t afford him the opportunity to run his defense with consistent success.
Hopefully, Joseph can move into a different defensive coordinator opportunity somewhere that he can highlight his skill set. There’s also the hope that he can wait out a good opportunity for his second head coaching stint.
More importantly, we hope to not see Joseph used the way we saw David Culley and Lovie Smith, as a bandage to rip off in a year when Murray will be returning back to full health for 2024.
4) Brian Flores
Have you ever seen a hyperactive dog run headfirst into a wasp nest? Do you want to?
There is no metaphor to properly describe just how horrible an idea it would be to hire Brian Flores for the Cardinals’ coaching job. There is no denying his coaching chops. He took over a horrible Miami Dolphins team and took them to consecutive winning seasons in 2020 and 2021.
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But Flores’ attitude towards Tua Tagovailoa and inability to hire a cohesive offensive staff eventually ended his service as Miami’s head coach. Murray needs coddling, and Flores hasn’t smiled since 21st Century FOX was 20th Century FOX. They’d mix about as well as oil and water, and there’d be a constant match lit above the class containing the liquids.
Flores absolutely deserves another chance to be a head coach, but this is not the opportunity he or the Cardinals should pursue.