Steve Wilks made a ton of mistakes in his first season as an NFL head coach. The Cardinals aren’t interested in seeing if he can learn from them in Year 2.
How can the Cardinals get it right after the failure of Steve Wilks’ 1 season as head coach?
Everything was awful, and Wilks had to go. What’s next for Arizona?
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Arizona fired Wilks on Black Monday, less than one year after hiring him to oversee the Cardinals’ rebuild following Bruce Arians’ retirement. While Wilks did a bang-up job in securing his team the No. 1 pick at the 2019 NFL Draft, Arizona’s lack of progress and almost unwatchable offense forced the team to cut the former defensive assistant 16 disastrous games into his tenure in Glendale.
Why did the Cardinals cut bait just one season into the Wilks experience?
The 2018 Cardinals were aggressively bad. Their three wins this season came against 49ers teams led by C.J. Beathard (twice) and on the road in Green Bay in the game that got Mike McCarthy unceremoniously fired 13 years into his coaching career with the Packers. If you lost to Wilks, you were either:
a) starting your third-most effective quarterback, or
b) so offended by the defeat that you fired the coach who won you a Super Bowl within the decade.
Arizona was occasionally competitive under Wilks, but mostly lost blowouts whose second halves offered little drama beyond testing the limits of how badly football fans can feel for Larry Fitzgerald. The Cardinals lost nine games by double digits.
Wilks wasn’t supposed to be an instant cure for a team with an uneven roster, but he’s managed to make great players look average while failing to develop young prospects. David Johnson, arguably the league’s most electric tailback in 2016, averaged just 3.6 yards per carry in 2018. Fitzgerald finished with a career low 734 receiving yards ... and he was still their leading wide receiver.
But Wilks was poison to his young players, which crushed Arizona’s rebuilding hopes
Few Arizona players lived up to their potential in 2018, and while guys like Budda Baker and Chandler Jones managed to shine under a longtime defensive assistant in Wilks, several others stagnated. Sam Bradford was so bad the Cardinals decided to leave him off the active roster rather than pay him a six-figure per-game bonus. That pushed first-round draft pick Josh Rosen into the lineup, and the results have been, well ...
Rosen’s arguably gotten worse with more experience as a rookie. In Week 15, he found the end zone zero times and threw a pair of interceptions in a 132-yard performance that led to a 40-14 loss to the Falcons. That wasn’t even his low point — that came the following week, when he complete 12 of 23 passes for just 87 yards and was benched for Mike Glennon in a blowout loss to the Rams.
Rosen’s not the only young player who struggled under Wilks. Rookie second-round pick Christian Kirk has failed to match his potential thanks to the team’s inconsistent passing offense. Second year tight end Ricky Seals-Jones is still catching fewer than 50 percent of his targets. Johnson has gone from fantasy football hero to a league-average running back
Wilks’ inability to create any kind of sustainable offense will be the albatross that accompanies him to any other future job interviews. Even after he fired offensive coordinator Mike McCoy midseason, the Cardinals scored a league-worst 14.1 points per game — nearly three points fewer than 31st-ranked Buffalo. That offense gained just 4.3 yards per play, the lowest mark the league has seen since 2012 (which, coincidentally, belonged to Arizona that season).
That wasn’t entirely his fault. As Revenge of the Birds pointed out, the Cardinals organization didn’t do Wilks many favors:
When you look at the initial press conference when Wilks was introduced, his vision of the team and then the ensuing use of assets never meshed.
Wilks wanted to stop the run and run the football.
The Cardinals proceeded to invest all their free agent money in quarterbacks and offensive linemen with injury concerns.
The Cardinals hired a defensive first head coach and invested next to nothing on the defense.
Despite that, two of the Cardinals’ most veteran players — Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Peterson — publicly supported him. Peterson even told the Arizona Republic that he expected Wilks to be back in 2019.
Rosen, however, was less enthused:
What’s next for the Cardinals?
Arizona’s future will depend on whether or not it can turn Rosen into a franchise quarterback. The former UCLA prospect has the mechanics and makeup to be a Pro Bowl passer, but his NFL debut has been grim so far.
Fortunately for the Cardinals, there’s a proven blueprint that’s taken underperforming first-round talents and turned them into valuable leaders for playoff teams. The Rams and Bears both surrounded disappointing young quarterbacks with dynamic talent to glean the most from Jared Goff and Mitchell Trubisky over the past two seasons. Rosen didn’t get much help from a depleted receiving corps, but adding some extra sure-handed targets would give him the opportunity to reach his potential — and give the franchise some insurance for the tragic occasion when Fitzgerald finally retires.
Who should the Cardinals target as their next head coach?
Arizona wasn’t particularly good on either side of the ball, but the offense is in dire need of rescue. Fortunately for the Cardinals, several good offensive assistants will be looking for promotions this winter. Josh McDaniels remains a big-name coordinator who could be due for another shot as a head coach, though after turning down the Colts last February he may not be especially interested in a more daunting rebuild in the desert. Eric Bieniemy has turned Patrick Mahomes from a second-year question mark into 2018’s MVP frontrunner with the Chiefs.
Mike McCarthy is looking for a job after being ditched in post-Cardinals loss shame. Matt LaFleur built a flawed Titans roster into a playoff contender. Zac Taylor could go from Rams QBs coach to a place in the spotlight after learning under Sean McVay. If Freddie Kitchens isn’t retained in Cleveland, his track record unlocking Baker Mayfield’s talent would make him an intriguing, if inexperienced, hire.
The problem in Arizona is that the Cardinals won’t have the appeal openings in Green Bay, New York, or even Cleveland have. Whoever takes the job in the NFC West will have to build a roster around Josh Rosen while dealing with one of the league’s most competitive divisional schedules. There’s no easy cure for a franchise that’s traditionally been a doormat — but the right offensive mind will have plenty of room to show improvement after Wilks’ disastrous one-year stint in Glendale.
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