Cardinals fire Kliff Kingsbury

NFL: JAN 01 Cardinals at Falcons
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There is another head coaching vacancy.

The Cardinals have fired Kliff Kingsbury, according to multiple reports.

Team owner Michael Bidwill elected to make the move less than a calendar year after signing Kingsbury and General Manager Steve Keim to extensions through the 2027 season. As noted recently during an episode of PFT Live, Kingsbury’s contract is guaranteed through 2026, with 2027 being an option year.

The Saints are expecting to get a request from the Cardinals to interview Sean Payton.

Arizona started the 2021 season 10-2 but went 5-18 in the remainder of Kingsbury’s tenure — including a non-competitive postseason loss to the Rams in last year’s wild card round.

Kingsbury finishes his tenure 28-37-1 in the regular season with an 0-1 postseason record.

While Keim is currently on a medical leave of absence, the Cardinals are also not expected to retain him as G.M.

57 responses to “Cardinals fire Kliff Kingsbury

  1. Keim is fired too! Good riddance to both really a dumb move extending them both and signing little Kyler also.

  2. Remember when the league tried to tell teams they needed to be patient when firing coaches like 4 weeks ago? LOL. Kliff can buy some sweet loafers with his upcoming salary for not coaching

  3. As a life long Cards fan, this move had to happen. Kliff never got this team to improve as the season moved along. It’s apparent he’s too much of a players coach. The team is undisciplined, and Kliff doesn’t hold players accountable. Finally, Kyler stopped progressing under Kliff. The team goes as Kyler goes. Whoever is going to run the offense needs to show Kyler he’s in charge not Kyler.

    Michael Bidwill blew it giving Kliff an extension. I’ll give him credit for recognizing he made a mistake and eating Kliff’s salary for the next few years

  4. He was truly one of the worst head coaches I have ever seen. He calls plays like he hits the random button on Madden. 2 or 3 times a game you’d just scratch your head at random disastrous calls. Good for Bidwell, making the correct football decision despite the financial ramifications

  5. I never understood extending either of these guys or Kyler Murray. You had multiple years left on Murray’s deal and now what legitimate coach is going to want to be stuck with such a horrible qb situation. That franchise is so very poorly run from the ownership on down.

  6. The bungling of Kyler’s contract language surely hindered Kliff. Regardless of whether the homework clause was needed the provision should never have been made public. Kyler’s production clearly fell off this season, he may very well have resented the public debate of the situation.

  7. How did he have a losing record in the NFL? Oh yeah, he also had a losing record in college. Don’t even know why he was hired.

  8. Murray’s contract is going to make them a cellar dweller for 2-3 more seasons. Good luck to their next coach with that!

  9. I get it when a coach needs to be fired because things have gone wrong long-term.

    But teams which fire coaches often looking for the secret recipe to be found with the next coach rarely succeed.

    Too many teams are looking for the great coach who doesn’t exist. All you want is a competent, satisfactory coach. McCarthy, Schottenheimer, etc. You can win with those.

  10. Always been a poorly run organization. Why would you extend his coach and guarantee his salary out so long. Makes no sense.

  11. Can’t believe they let Kyler intimidate them with his threatening memo. Now everyone’s paying for it.

  12. Can’t imagine any top tier coach with multiple opportunities would want to hitch their wagon to Kyler Murray or Russell Wilson. But between the two I’d rather have Wilson, even when you factor in age. Murray just seems like a complete cancer to an organization. Most knew it was a bad deal when they extended him, no clue why they did it.

  13. Now if they can do the same to their GM and QB, this team might have a prayer for a successful reset.

  14. Sad when the highlight of your coaching career was his GQ setup during the 2020 draft. I’ll bet he watches that over and over.

  15. At TT Kingsbury had a losing record with Patrick Mahomes as his QB. That’s remarkable.

  16. College HC. It’s a different ball game in the Bigs. Teams can figure out what you’re doing in real time

  17. Don’t kick yourself Card fans. Stupid is as stupid does. See Denver. They signed Russ Wilson to a $240M deal before he ever took a snap with team. May better days be ahead of you.

  18. The termination is best resolution for all concerns at this point.

    I am not going to pile on either Kingsbury or- if the presumptions of an imminent firing are accurate- Keim. They are now out of the organization and therefore are no longer part of either the problem or solution moving forward.

    I have no compassion for Bidwell having to pay Kingsbury through ’26. Bidwell might be a nice person in real life, and he seems to be a respected influence in local business organizations.

    Unfortunately for Cardinals fans and players, he has failed to consistently demonstrate competency in the business of overall professional football
    operations.

  19. Skol Vikes says:
    January 9, 2023 at 12:06 pm
    Keim is fired too! Good riddance to both really a dumb move extending them both and signing little Kyler also.

    //////////////////////////////////

    Kyler > cousins

  20. He can (and should) change but right now Murray is a coach killer. His performance in last year’s playoff’s destroyed the team. Losing would have been fine but literally being out of your mind reckless in that position started a year-long death march.

  21. How many lives does this cat have? Every time he is fired he gets a better job. Meet your new commissioner?!?

  22. Belichick loooooooves being able to hire coaches who are getting paid by other teams. The Kingsbury to Pats rumors that seemed a little ridiculous a few months ago might not be so crazy after all.

  23. It’ll be interesting because they’re still tied to Murray for a while and they hired Kingsbury basically because his offense is closest to what Murray ran in college. Does anybody see him putting in tons of time learning a totally new scheme? He didn’t fully learn Kingsbury’s system.

  24. Kingsbury isn’t the problem…it”s the QB with the bad attitude. As long as he’s there,the Cards won’t win,no matter who the HC or GM is.

  25. So you hire a guy because he’s an offensive coach and physically looks like McVay. Yet, couldn’t win in the Big 12. Did anyone really expect him to be successful in the NFL especially considering he couldn’t win in college?

  26. He really should pay Mahomes a portion of his salary, since the only reason he was lucky enough to get an NFL head coaching job is because he was fortunate enough to be his coach in college.

  27. I lost respect for Kingsbury when he backtracked on making Kyler Murray dedicate a set time to learning and studying his craft. If Murray wants to throw a fit and try his hand at baseball, let him. Then you can look for a real Quarterback.

  28. In these days of parity in the NFL, where almost every team has good players, the big difference is the head coach and the position coaches under him. Kingsbury is not a very good coach.

  29. Imagine going from Brees to Kyler Murray? I mean, he can coach short QBs so maybe the Cards to have a shot here.

  30. davefromtheburgh says:
    January 9, 2023 at 12:19 pm
    I get it when a coach needs to be fired because things have gone wrong long-term.
    But teams which fire coaches often looking for the secret recipe to be found with the next coach rarely succeed.
    Too many teams are looking for the great coach who doesn’t exist. All you want is a competent, satisfactory coach. McCarthy, Schottenheimer, etc. You can win with those.

    Things have gone very wrong in AZ. The GM has been incompetent for 10 years, how has he lasted this long? Poor drafting and poor hiring. Kingsbury fools no one, appears to get out-coached in almost every game and doesn’t make adjustments well on the fly. Smart enough to put a study clause in Kyler’s contract, dumb enough to remove it when the news became public.
    Bring Larry Fitzgerald in as a consultant, that would be a good start.

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