Arizona Cardinals Fans Should Trust Bruce Arians
By Scott Allen
Jun. 11, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA: Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians wears sunblock on his nose during mini camp at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
He was recently ranked as the 20th best NFL head coach. He is coming off a Coach of the Year award, a year in which he was the interim coach, replacing the ill Chuck Pagano in Indianapolis. Some say Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians’ 20th place ranking is sign of respect for a “rookie” head coach. I guess I can buy that but personally by the end of the season I have no doubt he will rank much higher on that list.
Arians spent 2004-2011 as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. How many Super Bowls did the Steelers win in that span? Yeah, that would be twice. They made the playoffs six of those years. He took over a Colts team and went 9-3 as the interim head coach last season. The Colts ended up making the playoffs after a terrible 2-14 2011 season. He knows a thing or two about winning, wouldn’t you agree?
Arians loves airing it out on offense. Of course that isn’t always the best recipe for winning but I truly believe Arians is going to use a balanced offense and use all four running backs to get the yards needed on the ground. I know there are still a lot of doubters with this offensive line and until they can prove otherwise, the scope will be on them to give quarterback Carson Palmer time to throw those Arians deep balls.
Up until now, Arians in my opinion has at least said all the right things. He will be honest. He was honest during mini-camp when he said he didn’t like what he saw early on but then later on said he was impressed with the improvement. He isn’t out there to tote any company line. When things are going good or bad, he’ll tell us.
He is also a very likeable guy, something I think a lot of players saw early on in Ken Whisenhunt. I think players started tuning him out last season and at times I understand why. Players won;t be tuning out Arians. They won’t be around long if they do. Arians wants to win and win now, even with this roster. He knows it’ll be a challenge and he won’t sugar coat anything but he’ll tell you he wants to win now. I love that as soon as Palmer was signed he immediately said there would be no quarterback competition or controversy, something we had to deal with all of preseason and into the regular season last year. That’s all we can ask for is a coach who wants to win and will do whatever is necessary to attempt to do it. I trust him to get the job done.