Josh Rosen is the centerpiece.
He may or may not be a great quarterback in five years. No one knows that yet. But the Cardinals see the potential, and that's where they want it -- that's where they need it -- to go. So they tapped Kliff Kingsbury, a not-even-40-year-old, to be head coach without any NFL coaching experience, and that was always going to raise some eyebrows.
But you look across the analysts' landscape and see those who like the move and those who don't, and all that shows is that no one can be sure. Kingsbury has been a head coach, just in college. He has been in the NFL, as a player. He has seen how things work, albeit from a player perspective. There is little question that his staff -- which can now be put together, and I'm sure will be ASAP -- will mean a ton. It does for every head coach, but in this case, the spotlight will be on the picks for defensive coordinator and offensive line coach especially.
About the quarterback, though. He should be pretty good with that, having taught guys like Patrick Mahomes. That's the whole point here, in a league where without good QB play you're all but doomed from the start. Of course the rest of it matters, from the scheme to the coaching to the culture in the locker room. But all that can be good and with lousy QB play, you're not going very far. For all the issues the Cardinals had last year, the inability to move the ball much at all, much less score, just sucked all hope away.
There are other changes going on with the Cardinals. Mike Disner, who had been the Cardinals' salary cap guru, left for a promotion to vice president of football administration for the Detroit Lions. It's great for Disner, who not only moves up the food chain but gets to do it at home -- he is from Michigan. It means the Cardinals need to find a new cap guy (although the process is underway.)
In the meantime, Kingsbury will be introduced in a press conference Wednesday at 1 p.m. Rosen won't be there -- he said before the season ended he was headed to watch a friend in the Australian Open, which began this week -- but he will be a main subject. There are a lot of questions Kingsbury will be answering over the next few months with how he will run his team. But at the top of the list will be what he will do to make his quarterback the one the Cardinals hope to have.
