There were plenty of moves that contributed to the Cardinals’ decision to fire coach Ken Whisenhunt and General Manager Rod Graves on Monday, but one of the biggest was the trade for quarterback Kevin Kolb before the 2011 season.
The Cardinals dealt cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round pick to the Eagles to bring Kolb to the desert, then gave him a six-year contract worth $63.5 million. Kolb was expected to solidify the team’s quarterbacking situation, but he’s played just 15 games over the last two years and failed to give the Cardinals what they were looking for when they made the deal.
Cardinals president Michael Bidwill conceded that the team “probably” hasn’t gotten value from Kolb to this point, but also said that he “isn’t ready to give up” on the player while talking about his desire for members of the 2013 coaching staff to be skilled at developing quarterbacks.
“That’s one of the questions we will really focus on with the coaching staff candidates,” Bidwill said, via Darren Urban of the team’s website. “How do we see about Kevin and his performance and how we can turn him into the quarterback of the future here for the Cardinals and make that decision, if he is the right guy?”
Kolb is due to make $11 million next season, a sum that might have to come down in order for Kolb to remain in Arizona. That assumes, of course, that whoever is coaching the Cardinals wants Kolb to be his quarterback in the first place.