Will former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury land in Philadelphia of all places?
By Sion Fawkes
Just 13 months ago, Kliff Kingsbury was coaching in his final games for the Arizona Cardinals while Jonathan Gannon was busy helping the Philadelphia Eagles reach the Super Bowl. Fast-forward to January 2024, and Gannon is now entrenched as Arizona’s head coach while Kliff is interviewing for several vacant offensive coordinator spots.
One of those potential landing spots is with the Philadelphia Eagles, and if this occurs, the Cardinals would have, in a manner of speaking, basically “traded” Kliff to the Eagles for Jonathan Gannon. No such compensation was exchanged sans what the Cards gave to the Eagles for “tampering” last offseason, but should Kliff land in Philadelphia, who ultimately wins this thing?
We can confidently say Jonathan Gannon did a solid job in his first season as head coach with a team that spent 2023 tearing things down more than they were building them back up. That wasn’t quite the case for Kingsbury, who won five games and tied in another during his first year in 2019.
Former Arizona Cardinals coach could re-enter the NFL in Philadelphia
While Gannon still needs to hone his in-game management skills, we know how poorly Kliff was in all four seasons in this category. To Kliff’s benefit, head coach Nick Sirianni will be managing the game, but we also know his play-calling also wasn’t spectacular.
If Sirianni and the Eagles bring on Kliff and delegate their play-calling to him, Philadelphia could be making a mistake. The style of offense Kliff brings is ill-suited for the NFL, even if it can work at the collegiate level. But the former Arizona Cardinals coach is familiar with Jalen Hurts, who played for Kliff’s current boss, Lincoln Riley.
Therefore, there would be a sense of familiarity between the two, even if Hurts never played for Kliff. Such a connection also indicates that Kliff could be a better fit in Philadelphia than he ever was for the Cardinals, so perhaps there is a place in the NFL he would be suited coaching in.
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