Destination: Cellar
How the Cardinals could end up with 2-14 season record
Normally, you wait until the end of the season before writing the obituary about an NFL team that failed to make the playoffs. In the case of the Cardinals, of course, their season died a long time ago.
They’ve already started looking ahead to next year and beyond. That became evident by Monday’s series of roster moves, which included releasing a pair of veterans in right tackle Andre Smith and defensive back Bene’ Benwikere and promoting rookie kicker Zane Gonzalez from the practice squad, which effectively ends the 20-year career of Phil Dawson.
Before they sweep the final five weeks under the rug and try to distance themselves from perhaps the worst season in their Arizona history, it’s important to stop to take a long, hard look at how the Cardinals got here, tied with the Raiders and 49ers for the worst record in the league at 2-9.
Critics can argue it might have started with the team’s decision to hire Steve Wilks as the new head coach. A defensive-minded longtime assistant, Wilks not only has struggled to get his players to make any sustained progress whatsoever, but it was also his decision to hire Mike McCoy as his offensive coordinator and completely disfigure what had been a Top 5 defense each of the last three seasons.
He accomplished the latter by switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3 base, doing so despite lacking the right personnel to play it, and then by hardly ever using it and relying almost solely on a five-defensive back system instead. It’s left the Cardinals in far too many exploitable situations. They’ve constantly been gashed by opposing rushing attacks and they’ve been extremely vulnerable on jet sweeps and short pass plays to the outside.
Say what you will about McCoy and much of his flawed play-calling on offense, but he was also hamstrung because of management’s decision to sign an overhyped veteran quarterback with one good knee (Sam Bradford) to an overpriced $20 million free-