Departing Arizona Cardinals coaching staff will be missed
By Jim Koch
A huge part of the success that former head coach Bruce Arians achieved with the Arizona Cardinals can be attributed to his assistants
It’s been almost a week now since Steve Wilks was named the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. The new leader’s first task was to start assembling his all-important coaching staff. Wilks’ standing in the league is partly exemplified by the group of assistants that will join him in the desert.
When hired back in 2013, it was obvious that Bruce Arians had made some impressive connections. Many of the coaches he chose to help him get the Cardinals back on their feet were of the highest quality. A set of men that undoubtedly played a major role in the moderate amount of success that Arians enjoyed with Arizona.
The most impressive of those assistants was defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. The former defensive back was coached by Arians at Temple University, and was an excellent choice to be the boss of Arizona’s defense. Bowles had been an interim head coach with the Miami Dolphins, and had already been coaching in the NFL for 13 seasons when he joined the Cards.
Tom Moore, pegged by Arians to be his assistant head coach, had been teaching offense at the pro level for decades. If experience was what the team was looking for in their staff, they certainly got that with this addition. Moore played an instrumental role in the development of Peyton Manning while engineering the offense of the Indianapolis Colts.
James Bettcher was brought in by Arians to coach the linebackers. The up and coming defensive guru took over as coordinator for Bowles in 2015, and has done an excellent job. Unfortunately, Bettcher was not retained by Wilks, and has now moved on to run the New York Giants’ unit.
Harold Goodwin was handed the title of offensive coordinator in ’13, despite the fact that Arians did the play-calling. Nevertheless, the protege was a respected offensive line expert who excelled in other aspects of the coordinator job. Goodwin has been interviewed for head-coaching posts over the last couple of years, but has yet to land one.
Arians brought to the Cardinals an array of ex-players who could hand down their knowledge and game-experience to members of the roster. Excellent teachers like Brentson Buckner, Kevin Ross, Stump Mitchell, Mike Caldwell, Darryl Drake and Steve Heiden. There were also vastly-experienced senior coaches on the staff, including Tom Pratt, Larry Zierlein and Rick Christophel.
Of course, there’s always one bad apple in any bunch. Special teams coordinator Amos Jones was quite unpopular during his time in Arizona. Incredibly, he has gotten a job with the Cleveland Browns, and is being joined there by another former Arians assistant, Freddie Kitchens.
Next: Steve Wilks a good hire for the Arizona Cardinals
Wilks has let it be known that he’s like to have his new Cardinals staff in place by the time Super Bowl LII rolls around. Former San Diego Chargers head coach Mike McCoy has been appointed offensive coordinator, and a linebackers coach named Al Holcomb will run the defense. Only time will tell if the staff that Wilks puts together does as well as the previous head coach’s did.