The Cardinals made the playoffs in 2021 and they were seen as a team that could get back there heading into the 2022 season, but Week One was the first sign that all was not well in Arizona.
They were routed 41-21 by the Chiefs in what safety Budda Baker called a “shitshow” from the Pro Bowl this weekend. Baker said he felt like things started going off course in training camp with players missing time that kept head coach Kliff Kingsbury from getting the team on the right page to start the year.
“I definitely felt like we were on the right path,” Baker said, via Grant Gordon of NFL.com. “You know in training camp it was definitely startling to not see a lot of the starters practicing and stuff like that. Cause I knew, you know especially with the preseason games none of us played in the preseason, it’s kinda just going through training camp, which was not a lot of people, and then we get to Week 1, it showed who was prepared. I don’t think we were as prepared in the beginning of when it all started than what we could’ve been.”
The Cardinals wound up going 4-13 and Kingsbury was fired at the end of the season. It remains to be seen who will be preparing the Cardinals to play next season because their coaching search hasn’t ended, but whoever winds up getting the job will have to hope that their first training camp on the job is a more productive one.