Arizona Cardinals losing Todd Bowles to New York Jets

Reports out of New York this evening have the New York Jets naming Todd Bowles as their next head coach

For the Arizona Cardinals, the Todd Bowles era is coming to end. Of course this is not unexpected news for Cardinals fans. Reports Tuesday evening have said that Bowles is expected to be officially named as head coach of the New York Jets on Wednesday.

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Bowles returned to New York on Tuesday for a second interview. He was said to have remained in New York Tuesday evening for dinner with the New York Jets brass including new general manager Mike Maccagnan. He was staying overnight. Then it was reported he was going to take the job.

Bowles also had been expected to have a second interview with the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers. Bowles was a hot commodity all season and had been rumored to be a wanted man around the NFL come firing time at the end of the season.

Bowles was hired after Bruce Arians became head coach in January 2013. There was a lot of sympathetic Ray Horton fans before the move was made. A lot of Cardinals fans wanted Horton to remain as the defensive coordinator of the Cardinals. Bowles was coming off a less than stellar year with the Philadelphia Eagles.

That tune changed quickly though. Bowles defense was a big reason for the Cardinals turn around in 2013 to a 10-6 record and missing the playoffs by one game. In 2014 it was even better, at least for the first three-quarters of it.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 9-1 record in their first 10 games this season thanks much in part to Bowles’ defense. The Cardinals offense had to deal with the injury to quarterback Carson Palmer and having backup Drew Stanton fill in. He did a good job as the backup but the argument can be made that the Cardinals wouldn’t have been anywhere near 9-1 without the defense.

Unfortunately the Cardinals leaned too much on their defense down the stretch and the unit got tired and quick. They started giving up a lot of big plays in the air and the ground. Some questioned whether this would hurt Bowles chances to become a head coach after the season.

Clearly that answer was no. At least not in the Jets eyes. Now they have a defensive coach to replace another defensive coach in Rex Ryan. I honestly didn’t see Bowles’ best fit being the Jets. I thought he would fit better in Atlanta. However congratulations to him. It is a well deserved promotion.

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