The rumor mill is hot among the Arizona Cardinals, even as Kliff Kingsbury remains the head coach of this team for at least another week.
DeMeco Ryans will be a head coach in the NFL next season, guaranteed. This is a guy who stepped in for Robert Saleh following the latter’s departure to the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers defense never missed a beat.
While many Arizona Cardinals fans would love to see an offensive mind work with Kyler Murray when he returns, we are forgetting one tried and true fact in the NFL: Great teams have great defenses.
And the Cardinals just so happen to have more than a few remarkable puzzle pieces on defense slated to return in 2023, with two more they can re-sign and be ready to re-insert. That said, hiring Ryans, or any top-tier defensive coach makes a lot of sense.
DeMeco Ryans would be a great add for the Arizona Cardinals
Since I’m not hot on rookie head coaches, especially those who haven’t even reached age 40, I was initially apprehensive regarding Ryans. However, many beat writers within the Cardinals community have changed my thoughts. Below, you will find Tweets from two writers who I’ve been following that played a large role in that:
DeMeco Ryans is my first choice of current coordinators to potential hires for Cardinals head coach.
— Chuck Harris (@chuckh3) January 5, 2023
And yes, you can hire a defensive HC and still develop a quarterback. It's the staff around Ryans, not Ryans himself, who impacts Murray's growth. https://t.co/rKo9i0cgfX
Chuck Harris makes a point that you just can’t argue with. Teams led by defensive-minded head coaches can still do an incredible job in developing quarterbacks. In fact, they could even do a better job, since an offensive-minded quarterback/offensive guru…ahem….Kliff Kingsbury, needs to worry about managing the entire team.
A defensive coach can simply delegate their quarterback’s development to a quarterback coach, offensive coordinator, and a passing game coordinator. This would theoretically give a quarterback like Kyler Murray more time with coaches focusing solely on him.
Overall, hiring Ryans would immediately bolster a young defense sure to add more talent in this year’s draft. This will make things more manageable for the offense, who for the first time in a long time, will have a coordinator running the show as opposed to a head coach who also needs to focus on other aspects like in-game management, and collaboration with defense and special teams, among others.
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