When the Arizona Cardinals hired Ray Brown to be their offensive line coach in 2018, he was excited to work with left tackle D.J. Humphries because when he coached the Carolina Panther, they had planned on drafting him in the first round. However, the Cardinals selected him instead. Brown then got to coach him in 2018.
History now repeats itself with the Cardinals’ new offensive line coach Sean Kugler. Kugler, who was the offensive line coach in 2018 for the Denver Broncos, revealed the Broncos intended on drafting Cardinals starting center Mason Cole.
“We almost drafted Mason in Denver,” he recalled on the Coaches Chronicles podcast. “We were literally going to take him in the same round. We were two picks behind Arizona and we were standing in the room waiting for the pick to turn the card in and they said, ‘the Arizona Cardinals select Mason Cole.’ Welp.”
Arizona selected Cole in the third round of the 2018 draft and he ended up starting every single game and played every single offensive snap of the season.
Kugler believes Cole will have a “10 to 12-year career” in the NFL.
Kugler also shares another connection with Cole. Kugler’s son was Cole’s teammate at Michigan in college.
Like Brown in 2018 with Humphries, Kugler now gets to coach a player he wanted to coach with his former team.
It didn’t go well for Humphries in 2018 under Brown, as he ended up on injured reserve. Ideally, things go better for Cole under Kugler in 2019.
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