When the Arizona Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury as head coach, they interviewed a number of candidates to be his offensive coordinator. Some of the names included Tom Clemants, Jim Bob Cooter, Hue Jackson, Ben McAdoo, John DeFilippo and even Steve Sarkisian.
Kingsbury opted to make no one the offensive coordinator, instead giving Tom Clements two titles — passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
At the time he said, “it just made sense to organize it this way.”
He didn’t rule out the possibility of having an offensive coordinator down the road.
The coaching staff will undergo at least five changes, although nothing has been announced officially.
Could he bring in someone to be his offensive coordinator this year?
The question comes up now because Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay, who did not have an OC for his first three seasons leading the team, recently made Kevin O’Connell his guy.
O’Connell was the offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, who released their previous coaching staff. McVay and O’Connell both worked together in Washington before McVay took the head coaching job.
It would appear he was waiting for O’Connell to be available.
Kingsbury interviewed many candidates and just didn’t feel right about any one guy being in charge of the offense.
Perhaps he has someone in mind who was either unavailable last year or perhaps wasn’t quite ready for the job in Kingsbury’s mind or general manager Steve Keim’s opinion.
Kingsbury installed his offense in 2019 and it saw big improvement over a historically bad 2018.
Will he be willing to hand over more control to someone else?
That remains to be seen, but if the Rams and McVay are willing to do it, Kingsbury perhaps has a plan in mind.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.
Ep. 255
Ep. 254
