At season’s end, 10 NFL teams had fired their head coaches, including the Arizona Cardinals. To date, eight clubs have hired a new guy to replace the outgoing guy. Arizona still hasn’t pulled the trigger.
Neither have the Las Vegas Raiders.
Both teams had a long list of possible candidates, and have whittled that down to a very short list. Interviews were conducted, and some second meetings transpired. Still, no announcement on who the next head coach will be for the Cardinals.
RELATED: CARDINALS TAKING ONE LAST SWING AT KUBIAK
On Saturday, Arizona held a second interview with Seattle Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak. However, he also had a second interview with the Raiders on the same day. Both interviews were via Zoom.
NFL rules regarding coaching interviews are pretty strict. The league doesn’t want what college football endured with situations such as Ole Miss, which made the playoffs, but their head coach took the same position at another school and left, leaving his old team without leadership.
If indeed Kubiak reached an agreement with either the Cardinals or the Raiders, league rules prohibit him from announcing that until after the Super Bowl has been played, which is slated for Sunday, February 8. And even so, that hiring will most likely become news the day after the big game.
The meetings with both Las Vegas and Arizona were Kubiak’s second interviews with each team. The second meeting is usually when a club will make a job offer, and either be accepted, rejected, or more negotiations will transpire with his agent if the cog is financial.
What this means for both the Cardinals and Raiders is that neither team will be able to announce the hiring for another week, but the team that Kubiak decides upon, and Kubiak, already knows. If fans and the media see either of these two clubs scheduling more interviews, that usually means they are still without a head man.
Then again, Kubiak just might be happy being the OC with the Seahawks. Perhaps that team doesn’t want to lose him after getting to the big game, and will agree to pay him substantially more to remain in-house. His OC income just might be comparable to how much Arizona will pay for the head coaching salary, without the headaches.
Remember, this very thing happened with the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason when they inked their offensive coordinator, Grant Udinski, to a much larger deal instead of losing him for a head coaching job. Udiniski was considered one of the leading candidates for the open Cleveland Browns position, but chose to return to Jacksonville.
Then again, every coach in the NFL wants to become a head coach one day. They are all upwardly mobile.
The Raiders have been heavily pursuing Kubiak. And they own the first overall pick in April’s NFL draft, which is assumed to be used on Indiana QB Fernando Mendez. Arizona’s QB situation is still in limbo. Since Kubiak is an offensive-minded coach, this alone may sway him.
Arizona has been linked to Denver Broncos DC Vance Joseph and Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Mike LaFleur, who hasn’t been a head coach at any level or a coordinator. Joseph was head coach of the Broncos from 2017-2018, and was the DC for the Cardinals from 2019-2022 under Kliff Kingsbury. Both coaches are well-known for turning around their team’s issues on their respective sides of the ball.
But NFL rules allow teams to contact coaches freely once they have ended their season, whether that is the regular season or the playoffs. Both the Rams and Broncos have been out of the playoffs for a solid week now since both clubs lost in the AFC and NFC Championship Games. So, if the Cardinals were serious about these two men, they could have hired either already.
Which would lead everyone to believe that Kubiak is the target coach for Arizona.
The Raiders front office will have nearly $90 million in salary cap space to surround the rookie Mendoza with potential talent, the second-highest amount in the league. The Cardinals are expected to have between $35.7 to $38.4 million in cap space.
Arizona hasn’t made the playoffs since 2021. The last time Las Vegas was in the playoffs was in 2002, when they were the Oakland Raiders and lost to Tampa Bay in Super Bowl XXXVII 48-21.
So, what happens if Kubiak takes the Raiders’ gig? Or remains in Seattle?
Do the Cardinals still have Bruce Arians on speed dial?
