Arizona Cardinals: Kingsbury not the offensive guru the team thought
By Sion Fawkes
Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury has shown time and again he is not the offensive guru Steve Keim thought he hired.
In August, USA Today placed Kliff Kingsbury at #3 in their NFL coaches most likely to get fired piece. Only Ron Rivera and Matt Rhule sat ahead of him, the same Matt Rhule the Carolina Panthers let go before he could put together yet another disastrous campaign.
In 2022, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph routinely bailed out Kingsbury’s ill-fated “chuck and duck” offense. So much that I wrote a piece last week telling you that Vance, and not Kliff, is the best coach on the Arizona Cardinals.
In Sunday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Kingsbury’s offense, somehow, failed to score an offensive touchdown against what was heading into Week 6 the league’s worst defensive unit. A team that allowed 154 points in just five games, or 30.8 points per game.
It shows us, once more, that Kliff Kingsbury is not just a bad playcaller – we knew that, but he has not the slightest clue on how to run an NFL offense. How do you score three offensive points against the league’s worst defense that has allowed an average of nearly 31 all season? Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this.
The Arizona Cardinals need to seriously consider firing Kingsbury
Yeah, I know, Kingsbury signed a contract extension and that. Hey, it doesn’t mean a coach can’t be fired as the Cardinals would still have to honor that contract regardless of who is standing on the sideline and calling a better game. Jason Garrett? Vance Joseph? Right now, I would take just about anyone besides Kingsbury.
Sure, he will get DeAndre Hopkins back next week and the offense should be much better. Then again, they should have been better today, and they couldn’t even find the end zone. Even if Hopkins saves the situation and the Cardinals start averaging 28-plus points per game, you still need to wonder whether Kingsbury should stay on the sidelines.
He has an outstanding tight end in Zach Ertz, and a great receiver in Marquise Brown. Yet his offense can’t find a way to the end zone? This is a combo of poor playcalling, bad clock management, and simply failing to learn from past mistakes.
light. Related Story. Vance Joseph would be a better coach for the Cardinals
While I don’t expect Kingsbury to go anywhere, Arizona Cardinals brass is once again responsible for making its fans suffer from the lack of productivity Kingsbury has failed to conjure offensively. Remember, this is a man who couldn’t win in college with Patrick Mahomes playing quarterback. Whatever made Steve Keim and Michael Bidwill think he’d win in the NFL is beyond me.