Just when all seemed quiet in the land of Arizona Cardinals coaches, they reportedly added an assistant on Tuesday
He’s a familiar face to Arizona Cardinals fans. Hopefully he is a name familiar to Cardinals fans despite the fact he didn’t find the end zone often as a player for the franchise.
Jim Dray has reportedly been added to Kliff Kingsbury‘s staff as an assistant coach. The former tight end played 8 seasons in the NFL, his first 4 with the Cardinals.
Now he will be, you guessed it, a tight ends coach. He scored just 3 touchdowns as a Cardinals tight end over those 4 seasons. He also played one game for the team in his final season in 2017.
In between he played for the Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, and San Francisco 49ers. His best seasons as a player was in 2013 and 2014. He caught 26 passes for 215-yards and 2 touchdowns in 2013. In 2014 he scored just 1 touchdown on 17 receptions for 242-yards.
The news of the hire came Tuesday in a tweet by ESPN reporter Field Yates. According to azcentral.com’s Bob McManaman, no official word from the team on the move just yet.
Dray was a former draft pick of the Cardinals. 7th round selection, tight end out of Stanford. No news from the Cardinals on this addition as of yet. https://t.co/aQchlLnUD7
— Bob McManaman (@azbobbymac) January 21, 2020
Dray was on former Browns head coach Freddie Kitchen’s staff prior to his firing a few weeks ago following the 2019 season. Dray was not kept on staff by new Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.
Dray should have a good group to work with in 2020. As of right now the Cardinals tight end room includes Charles Clay, Maxx Williams, Dan Arnold, and Darrell Daniels.
If that remains the room, first of all it would be a surprise but if it stands, it is still a good room to have. We’ll see what happens and we’ll wait for official word from the team on this hire.