Three decisions to change the Franchise

[khodder]

This offseason the Cardinals are heading down a road that happens to most NFL teams at some point. The Cardinals have a unit in their defense that is among the best in the league. It has it's issues, but it is among the best in the league. The offense is the complete opposite.

So going into this offseason the Cardinals face two or three decisions to will change the direction of this franchise.

1 = Possible change at the General Manager spot. Rod Graves has been an employee of the Arizona Cardinals since 1997 when he joined as the Vice President of Football Operations. However the Cardinals have had drafting issues for a long while, and it was really not until the 2010 draft that things began to look brighter for Arizona, not coincidentally that was the second draft after Steve Keim was promoted to Director of Player Personnel and began having even more of an impact on drafting decisions. Now Rod Graves still has value on this team, but if this team wants to continue to move forward they cannot let Steve Keim leave. This puts them in a tough position, they need to shuffle the Front Office to allow Keim to be a defacto General Manager, but in reality there is still a lot of value to be had from keeping Rod Graves on board.

Essentially what you want is Rod Graves being the business and contract man in conjunction with other staff already on board who handle salary cap management and promote Steve Keim to "General Manager" who will make decisions around player additions in conjuction with the Head Coach.

The other option is the let Graves go, Promote Keim and bring in an NFL Contract guy, probably a former agent and let him handle those responsibilites in conjunction with Keim for a year or two.

2 = Needed Change - New Head Football Coach. Bottom Line - The Arizona Cardinals need to hire a new Head Football coach. Who and from where is a big question and the even bigger question is how does Horton feel about A] Possibly being passed over for a HC job here and in a related feeling B] Would he be willing to stay on the staff doe a new Head Coach.

Persoanlly I think the way to go is progressive, you need to get a thinker and an innovator in particular on offense. The obvious connection there is Chip Kelly, but honestly I don't think we are a job he would want with the current state of where we are, but he would be my #1 candidate. Past him I would prefer someone with previous Head Coaching experience, though that is not mandatory and someone who is going to bring and identity to this team and impress that on his front office and his scouts. We want players who can do X, Y and Z, go and get those guys.

A Head Coach sets the tone for their team, we need to make a good hire here or all it does is set the franchise back another 3 years.

Bottom Line Philosophy for me is that you hire a Head Coach in the NFL you HAVE to give him three years. Three years should be the minimum amount of time for a hand picked hire, you wanted him, now make sure you give him to time he needs to mold the team into what he wants.

3 = Quarterback Change - This team needs to find itself a Quarterback that can not only make this team a playoff team, but one that can help this Franchise win a Superbowl. This is not an easy task and it will be on the two guys up the top, your GM and your Head Coach to find that guy and make him into what he can be. There is only one guy available this year that is this kind of player and that is Geno Smith. You don't get Geno you likely need to be prudent and wait another year.

If this team comes out of this offseason having made changes that ends up with Chip Kelly as the Head Coach, Ray Horton staying on board as a defensive mind and Geno Smith as your Quarterback then you come out of the offseason smelling of roses.

That is not the likely outcome, but it is one that is possible and it all starts with Mike Bidwill. The choices he makes THIS offseason are going to shape this team for a decade.
_________________
Patrick Peterson - 92 targets, 40 catches allowed, 602 yards, 6 TD's, 7 INT's

The Big Brain am winning again, I am the Greetest.

[JeremyB80]

That would be the perfect offseason, but i think we won to many games to draft geno
_________________


Amazing thank you going to MoJo122-b-21 for this sick signature!!!

[khodder]

[stchamp98]

You make numerous points that I find to be dead on and 100% accurate and while I think all 3 of these points have a legitimate chance of happening, I'm of full belief that only 1 really NEEDS to happen. Quarterback. We need a starting quarterback. Everything's uphill from there but we need a starting quarterback. If that means giving everything to get Geno Smith, we need to do it. Our offensive line will just be mediocre and we'll have some holes defensively but we need a starting quarterback. The cost really doesn't matter.
_________________

[younggun1273]

And to think we were so close to signing Peyton Manning this offseason.
_________________

Justo on the sig

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

[SuperFlyTNT]

That is really what it's all about at this point - QB. The Jet's were rated as a lousy run defense - we couldn't run at all though because they had absolutely no respect for our passing game - and who can blame them?

This was the worst professional football game I have ever seen played - if any game was worth the Jim Mora rant about not being able to do diddly-poo on offense this was it.