Arizona Cardinals: Did Kyler Murray scare another coaching candidate?

Yesterday, we saw Brian Flores become the latest would-be head coaching candidate to spur the Arizona Cardinals. Why did that happen?

Brian Flores seemed to be a frontrunner for the Arizona Cardinals head coaching job at one point over the past month. When he was on the New England Patriots coaching staff, Flores and current general manager Monti Ossenfort were there at the same time, so the two were undoubtedly familiar with one another.

So what happened? Why did Flores spurn one of the top 32 jobs in football to become the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator? Adam Patrick of The Viking Age speculated that quarterback Kyler Murray could be the reason Flores bolted for Minneapolis in favor of Glendale. Patrick wrote:

"“Did Brian Flores choose the Minnesota Vikings over the Arizona Cardinals because of Kyler Murray?“Murray‘s tenure in Arizona hasn’t exactly been full of rainbows and unicorns. He’s helped the Cardinals achieve a good amount of success during his time with the franchise, but he’s also been a target for plenty of criticism for his on and off-the-field behavior that some might describe as immature.” – via The Viking Age."

We at Raising Zona said similar things, given the number of head coaching candidates, experienced candidates, who told the Cardinals, “no, thank you.” If it was indeed because of Kyler Murray, what does that say about the Cardinals quarterback now?

The Arizona Cardinals have to be kicking themselves at the moment

Here are a few snippets of Murray’s four-year career with the Arizona Cardinals:

• 25-31-1 record
• Zero playoff wins
• One playoff appearance
• Zero division championships
• Two Pro Bowls
• 2019 Offensive Rookie of the Year
• Currently playing under a $230.5 million contract

While Murray has a few accolades listed above, do they really matter at this point? I mean, if Tyler Huntley, who threw two touchdown passes all season, can make the Pro Bowl Games, anyone can make them. But with his large contract, Murray will be sticking around for at least the foreseeable future.

Following his attitude issues this past season, which once again, we at Raising Zona spoke about on multiple occasions, you have to ask whether Flores believed coaching Murray would lead to yet another ill-fated tenure.

While we may never know why Flores spurned the Cardinals, or why the other candidates said no to the team for that matter, we have to ask ourselves why both he and Dan Quinn didn’t want one of just 32 NFL head coaching jobs, and would rather go elsewhere?

Why did Frank Reich enter an extremely unstable quarterback situation in Carolina? Why did Sean Payton find it more attractive to lead a football team with a quarterback well past his prime? And why did DeMeco Ryans think it was better to sign with a team that had four head coaches (counting interim head coaches) in three seasons?

Something is definitely up, and it might just be the infamous antics of Kyler Murray. And if we do happen to find out that this was the case, then Kyler has two options: Get your act together or get out of town. 

Article Source: Should the Vikings send a Thank You Card to Cardinals QB Kyler Murray? by Adam Patrick

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