Arizona Cardinals make tough, right decision with Steve Wilks

The Arizona Cardinals fired first year head coach Steve Wilks on Monday

I’ve seen a writer say the firing was unfair.  Another felt like they fired the wrong guy.  In reality, the Arizona Cardinals got it right on Monday when they fired head coach Steve Wilks.

Sure, we can all argue whether general manager Steve Keim should have joined him.  I get that sentiment, but the move to fire Wilks was the correct one.

Wilks is a good guy, a guy with class, but could not succeed in a win now, results driven business. Those opposed felt like Wilks should have been given more time.  It had to be tough to let a good man like Wilks go.

If Wilks had been able to get his players to be competitive, if he had been able to make in game adjustments, if he had improved this team at all from last season, I’d agree with that.  He didn’t do any of that.

In preseason it looked like he got players to buy in.  However from week one, losing to the Washington Redskins to the season finale loss in Seattle on Sunday, the writing was on the wall.

The Cardinals tried to help Wilks adjust in October by firing offensive coordinator Mike McCoy.  They moved on to Byron Leftwich.  That didn’t work either.

The play calling was only an improvement in the first quarter.  The Cardinals still got jackstomped in the second and third quarters this season.

The Cardinals did have some close losses.  They lost on the final play to the Seahawks.  They lost a close one to the Chicago Bears after taking an early 14-0 lead.

But the team regressed in almost every aspect.  Sure, personnel and injuries did have a lot to do with it but previous Cardinals teams had those issues too and yet this team found a way to be much worse.

They were inconsistent with their effort.  They didn’t put together their best game until Sunday in Seattle.  Even then there were quite a number of time management mistakes and questionable play calls by Wilks that ultimately cost them the game.

So now the Cardinals are both on the clock with the number one draft and on the clock to find a coach along with several other teams at the same time.  Whoever it is, the Cardinals need to get it right.  This franchise can not suffer another season like it just did.