Will the Cardinals fire Kliff Kingsbury? Another late-season collapse spurs questions about coach’s job security
The Cardinals looked like the best team in the NFL at the midpoint of the 2021 NFL season. They had an 8-1 record after nine games and had the best record in the NFC. Their only loss in the first half of the season came against the Packers thanks to a miscommunication between A.J. Green and Kyler Murray on a potential go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute left in the game.
Arizona seemed like a potential Super Bowl contender. It had an explosive offense and a defense that got enough timely stops to be considered an effective unit. Kliff Kingsbury was getting legitimate Coach of the Year consideration, and even earned an endorsement from Bill Belichick for his performance.
However, something familiar happened to the Cardinals in the second half of the season. They suffered a total collapse. The wheels fell off for the team and it sputtered to a 3-5 regular-season finish and squandered both the inside track to the No. 1 seed and the NFC West title.
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Arizona lost five of its final six games, including its embarrassing 34-11 playoff defeat vs. the Rams, during which the Cardinals found themselves down 21 points before they could generate positive yardage and a first down.
“It was a massive failure, from what we were capable of doing, to what we showed we can do, to today,” Cardinals veteran J.J. Watt said, per Darren Urban of the team’s official website. “There is no other way to describe it.”
The blame for the Cardinals’ failure should certainly be shared. Murray struggled at times down the stretch and in the playoffs. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins wasn’t healthy and the team’s offensive line didn’t hold up well either. And defensively, the team simply couldn’t consistently stop the run, and that led to troubles for them against the play-action pass.
But Kingsbury deserves quite a bit of scrutiny for his performance. His teams have routinely faded down the stretch and Arizona’s late-season performance in 2021 is no exception.
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Kliff Kingsbury’s record with Cardinals, Texas Tech
Kingsbury has been the coach of the Cardinals for three seasons. He has led the team to improvements year over year, but his late-season record is abysmal.
Each year, Kingsbury has led Arizona to a solid or hot start. However, it never lasts, and the team often fades down the stretch. That’s what happened during his second season, when the Cardinals failed to earn the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs and instead saw the Bears earn it. And this season, they blew a two-game lead in the NFC West with five games left to play.
Year | Start | Finish | Result |
2019 | 3-3-1 | 2-7 | Missed playoffs |
2020 | 6-3 | 2-5 | Missed playoffs |
2021 | 10-2 | 1-5 | Lost 34-11 in wild-card round |
It’s worth noting that the Cardinals’ roster was not strong in 2019, so that certainly impacted the then-rookie coach. And in 2020, Murray battled an injury and was not himself down the stretch. Still, their downward trend in 2021 is troubling when coupled with those two previous regressions.
That said, Kingsbury’s poor finishes shouldn’t be a major surprise to anyone. He coached at Texas Tech for six years before joining the Cardinals, and during his time with that program, the Red Raiders frequently started the year well but dealt with late-season collapses. They were very similar to the Cardinals in that regard, though Texas Tech usually opened with easier non-conference games and Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were typically on the schedule late in the season.
Kliff Kingsbury’s end to the season as a head coach…
Texas Tech:
• ’13: lost 5 of 6
• ’14: lost 4 of 6
• ’15: lost 4 of 6
• ’16: lost 6 of 8
• ’17: lost 6 of 8
• ’18: lost 5 of 5Cardinals:
• ’19: lost 7 of 9
• ’20: lost 5 of 7
• ‘21: lost 5 of 6 pic.twitter.com/t7e0C1rWC7— The Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) January 18, 2022
For those looking for a less arbitrary split, Kingsbury’s NFL record plummets after October. He is 15-8-1 during the first two months of the season with the Cardinals and just 9-17 in the latter portion of the NFL calendar.
Month | Record |
September | 5-4-1 |
October | 10-4 |
November | 3-6 |
December | 5-8 |
January | 1-3 |
As the games get more meaningful, the Cardinals have tended to wilt. That doesn’t fall entirely on Kingsbury, of course. You need only watch Murray’s horrendous, Carson Wentz-like pick-six against the Rams to remind yourself of that.
But still, a third straight late-season collapse at the NFL level isn’t good news for Kingsbury, and it will bring up questions about his future and job security.
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Will the Cardinals fire Kliff Kingsbury?
There hasn’t yet been any indication that the Cardinals would fire Kingsbury. Given that the team was an NFC contender for most of the season and made the playoffs, it makes sense that there were few rumblings about his job security until this point.
That said, the team’s latest, late-season collapse and humiliating loss to the Rams could at least make the Cardinals reconsider.
Kingsbury signed a four-year contract with the team back in 2019, so he is entering the last year of his pact in 2022. The Cardinals are going to have to make a decision about his future in the not-so-distant future one way or another. If they don’t believe that Kingsbury can fix these late-season errors, they could move on now.
Since 2000, nine coaches have been fired after producing a winning season the previous year. Of those nine, five made it to the playoffs and two — Mike Mularkey and Steve Mariucci — won playoff games.
Year | Team | Coach | Record | Playoffs |
2017 | Titans | Mike Mularkey | 9-7 | Divisional round |
2017 | Lions | Jim Caldwell | 9-7 | Missed playoffs |
2014 | Broncos | John Fox | 12-4 | Divisional round |
2012 | Bears | Lovie Smith | 10-6 | Missed playoffs |
2008 | Buccaneers | Jon Gruden | 9-7 | Missed playoffs |
2006 | Chargers | Marty Schottenheimer | 14-2 | Divisional round |
2005 | Vikings | Mike Tice | 9-7 | Missed playoffs |
2002 | 49ers | Steve Mariucci | 10-6 | Divisional round |
2001 | Buccaneers | Tony Dungy | 9-7 | Wild-card round |
So, if the Cardinals are that disappointed, it wouldn’t be a massive shock to see them make a change. He would be the third coach in the last 21 years to be fired after winning 11 regular season games. At the same time, nothing has been reported yet about Kingsbury’s job being in peril, so it seems like Arizona isn’t planning to move on from him.
If Kingsbury does return to the Cardinals, expect him to be on the hot seat out in the desert with one goal for 2022: finish the season on a strong note for the first time in his head coaching career.