Kliff Kingsbury has lost control of the Arizona Cardinals, something that started in training camp and trickled into Week 1 of the 2022 season.
Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports wrote a compelling piece regarding Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s displeasure regarding the team’s practice habits. Kingsbury claims he will address the situation, but it leaves us to wonder: Why did he not address this when training camp kicked off in July?
Kingsbury had 40-plus days to fix the Cardinals practice habits, and he decided to wait until his press conference following the blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs to say enough is enough. This is the sign of a head coach that has lost complete control of his team. One that seemingly put it in cruise control after signing a lucrative contract extension early in the 2022 offseason.
Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury is in the fourth season of his tenure and he still cannot figure out how to win consistently in the NFL.
While no one wants to see their starters get hurt in the preseason, they still need preseason reps. I’m not a fan of giving players extended playing time before the games count, but they need to at least prepare themselves for the 17-game gauntlet that starts in mid-September and ends in early January.
Kingsbury also has a quarterback in Kyler Murray who may or may not be on the same page. In the quote below, Murray seems take zero responsibility for the Cardinals recent practice habits.
"“I can’t speak for everyone. It felt like the week was good. Obviously, none of that matters though. Nothing that happens during the week matters if you don’t execute on Sunday. Everybody says what they want to say about the week, mentality, and all that stuff. It doesn’t matter. You come out there on Sunday and get your butt beat that’s what happens.” – via CBS Sports."
If the face of the Arizona Cardinals is not on the same page as Kingsbury, now what? Are we going to see a Team Kliff Camp and a Team Kyler Camp just one week into the regular season? A locker room divided, with one side agreeing that they need to practice better during the week and another claiming everything was fine and they just didn’t execute when it mattered?
Kingsbury could have completely avoided this situation had he simply reined in control on Day One of training camp. Instead, he let the situation get so far out of hand the Cardinals were arguably the most ill-prepared team in the NFL this week. Yes, the Chiefs are an elite team, and yes, the Cardinals were hurting. But they still had enough pieces in place to prevent the 37-7 meltdown in the game’s first three quarters.
As the head coach, Kingsbury has no one to blame for this mess but himself. Instead of saying, onto the next one, he now has to enact damage control inside a locker room that evidently coasted through training camp. And the fact Kingsbury failed to take action before this week shows the extent of how little influence he has over his team.
Article Source: Kliff Kingsbury not pleased with Cardinals’ practice habits before blowout loss to Chiefs by Jeff Kerr