Arizona Cardinals reportedly have their next head coach
As the NFL’s coaching carousel turns, the Arizona Cardinals look to have now filled their vacancy left by the outgoing Bruce Arians.
Arians, 65, retired Jan. 1 amid speculation that the Cardinals may want to go in a rebuilding direction.
The Cardinals, per an ESPN league source, will make Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks their next head coach.
Wilks, 48, had previously been a defensive backs coach for the Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers and the Panthers.
He was promoted to the defensive coordinator position for Carolina in 2017.
It’s an interesting development for the Cardinals.
As if often the case when changing head coaches, team philosophies tend to shift as well.
Arians was always noted for being an excellent quarterback developer, and his revival of Carson Palmer’s career — as well as making Drew Stanton seem like a competent NFL quarterback — attests to this.
Wilks, meanwhile, is noted for his defensive prowess. The Chicago Bears secondary he presided over was noted for its penchant to cause fumbles and turnovers.
With the noteable exceptions of running back David Johnson and receiver Larry Fitzgerald, the bulk of the Cardinals’ talent resides in their secondary.
Safeties Tyrann Mathieu, Antoine Bethea and Tyvon Branch all excelled in a defense that liked to use three safeties. Cornerback Patrick Peterson is still regarded as one of the very best man-to-man coverage corners in the NFL.
Wilks will have no shortage of options to work with in the Arizona secondary.
On offense, however, the Cardinals have plenty of questions. Palmer retired the day after Arians stepped down and Stanton is an unrestricted free agent. The team needs to either pursue a top free agent or find its next signal caller in the draft.
And with Jimmy Garoppolo now in San Francisco, Jared Goff’s emergence with the Rams and Russell Wilson in Seattle, the Cardinals are the only team in the NFC West with uncertainty at the quarterback position.
There’s also some concern that all of the turnover in Arizona will prompt Fitzgerald to retire before next season, even though he signed a one-year extension in November.
As for Carolina, the team should be just fine without Wilks.
Whatever Carolina has been doing on defense, it’s been working. This is the second year in a row that a team with a head coaching need has poached one of the Panthers’ defensive coordinators.
Just last year, the Buffalo Bills snatched Sean McDermott from the Carolina sideline.
Cardinals fans will certainly be hoping that Wilks has a McDermott-esque effect on the squad. McDermott took a downtrodden franchise that was making personnel moves like it was planning on rebuilding, and took them to the playoffs.
There’s certainly room for optimism in Arizona. There’s talent on the defense, Johnson will be returning after missing all but just one game this season, and the Cardinals can address any of their needs with the 15th overall pick in the draft.
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