Sean Payton can bring credibility to the Arizona Cardinals franchise
By Jim Koch
Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill can save the franchise by hiring Sean Payton to coach his struggling football team.
Don’t look now, but the Arizona Cardinals are once again becoming one of the laughingstocks of the National Football League. In fact, the latest edition of ESPN’s power rankings has the Redbirds sitting at #30, with only the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos occupying the two spots below them.
Arizona needs a drastic shot in the arm, and owner Michael Bidwill is the only one who can make that happen. What the team so desperately needs is a high-profile head coach who can bring a winning culture to a sinking Cardinals franchise.
Enter Sean Payton, the offensive-minded guru who led the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl championship back in 2009. Rumors are swirling that the 59-year-old will be looking for another head-coaching job in 2023. Could the Cards be the winner of that sweepstakes?
The first step toward that goal would involve the dismissal of Kliff Kingsbury, a very nice man who appears to be ill-equipped to lead a squad of NFL players. The 43-year-old posted a losing record (35-40) as the head man at Texas Tech University, so it was probably ludicrous to think that Kingsbury would find success in the pros with Arizona.
Arizona Cardinals would be getting a proven winner if they hire Sean Payton
Payton, on the other hand, is a proven commodity at the professional level. The California native amassed a glowing 152-89 regular-season record with the Saints, and went 9-8 in the playoffs. New Orleans won the NFC South seven times with Payton at the helm, including four-consecutive division titles from 2017-20.
By comparison, the Cardinals have won their division a total of seven times since 1947. The last NFC West championship for the organization was back in 2015, when Bruce Arians and Carson Palmer were running the offense. There has been just one postseason appearance for “Big Red” since, and that resulted in a humiliating 34-11 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in January of 2022.
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Arizona needs a coach of Payton’s magnitude to get them to the next level. Bidwill has an opportunity to do something his late father, former owner Bill Bidwill, never did. Spend the money it will take to get a stud like Payton to the desert, and reward the “Red Sea” for the undying loyalty they’ve shown the Cardinals through all of these years.
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