PHNX Daily: Cardinals Narrow Search to 3 Finalists

👋 GOOD MORNING – It’s the start of a new week, and the Arizona Cardinals might be getting closer to having a new head coach… maybe.

It’s going to be tough to watch the Seahawks in another Super Bowl, but they may be proof that all it takes is a great coaching staff. One can only hope the Cardinals find the right group this time.

The point is, we now have three finalists for the job. Let’s break them down!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

Cardinals Have 3 Head Coach Finalists

It’s been a long, slow, agonizing search for the Cardinals, but the names are starting to dwindle — and so are the openings. Arizona is now one of only four remaining available jobs, alongside the Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders and Buffalo Bills.

There’s a clear No. 1 among those options.

Anyway, a recent report from Dianna Russini confirmed what educated listeners of PHNX Cardinals have been thinking for some time now. The Cardinals are down to three head coaching finalists: Rams OC Mike LaFleur, Jaguars DC Anthony Campanile and former Falcons HC Raheem Morris.

They may not be the most ideal of names, considering Arizona already missed out on John Harbaugh and don’t appear to have a chance of landing Sean McDermott.

But this isn’t a bad list of candidates. There are certainly pros and cons to each. So let’s examine them.

Mike LaFleur

Pros: LaFleur is a Sean McVay underling. That alone carries pretty significant weight. He’s a young, offensive candidate who will almost certainly be able to build a solid staff. His brother, Matt, has been a successful HC in Green Bay, as well.

The Cardinals desperately need that type of offensive refresh, and LaFleur is the only one on this list of finalists that can provide that to Arizona. He also kind of looks like a skinny JJ Watt.

Cons: He doesn’t currently call plays for the Rams, since that duty belongs to McVay. He’s inexperienced, and would likely need a veteran support staff around him, which isn’t a guarantee. Fans who may have been traumatized by the Kliff Kingsbury/Vance Joseph era would likely point out the risk present in putting together a staff like that, and they’re not wrong.

Anthony Campanile

Pros: He’s Italian.

Kidding — Campanile is clearly a rising coach. He took the Jaguars’ bottom-feeding defense and turned them into a top-10 unit in one year. The Cardinals definitely have enough personnel to see a similar turnaround on that side of the ball, and Campanile specializes in run defense, which Arizona would benefit highly from.

He also brings no shortage of juice. That hard knocks video doesn’t mean everything, but he’s clearly got some fire, and both the players and fans in Jacksonville seem to love and respect him. It’s also worth noting he was Dolphins’ linebackers coach at the time that video, and was tasked with addressing the entire team. That isn’t normal.

Cons: Going back to the defensive side with their next HC hire might be risky, as well. Not to mention, there’s some question as to whether or not Campanile could bring in a solid offensive coordinator. Being unable to do just that is, in essence, what eventually ran Jonathan Gannon out of town. Campanile is also the most inexperienced of the three candidates, with just one year as a defensive coordinator at the NFL level.

Raheem Morris

Pros: Morris has head coaching experience, and won more games in the past two seasons with the Falcons (16) than Gannon won in three years with the Cardinals (15). He also has connections from his days under McVay in Los Angeles, and is a very capable defensive coach who understands the brutality of the NFC West.

Cons: He doesn’t bring quite as much excitement, and this would be his third head coaching stint, with a losing record at both of his previous stops. It’s hard to find serious negatives on Morris other than that fact (which is a big one), but he also probably wouldn’t excite the fanbase, unless he was brought in as LaFleur’s DC.

Hopefully, we find out who the Cardinals’ next head coach will be soon. This is brutal.

By the way, if you’d like to get daily updates on every twist and turn in the Cardinals’ coaching search, check out PHNX Cardinals’ coaching tracker, updated daily by yours truly:

Arizona Cardinals 2026 Coaching Search Tracker

Quick Hits

You can’t make this up: So, the healthy Suns era lasted a little over one game this time. In a 110-103 loss to the Hawks, both Devin Booker and Jalen Green left with injuries. Booker appeared to sprain his ankle pretty bad, but will be re-evaluated in just one week, which is somewhat of a positive sign. Green, meanwhile, is having more issues with his hamstring, but was only listed as questionable for last night’s game, and may not necessarily miss much more time. We’ll see…

In the absence of these stars, the Suns struggled against the Heat, falling 111-102 at home last night. Dillon Brooks led the charge with 26 points, but it wasn’t enough.

Mountain Climbing: The No. 1-ranked Wildcat men’s basketball squad blew out West Virginia for an 88-53 win to improve to a staggering 20-0 on the season. A team that has hardly shot any three-pointers this season sank 10 of 23 from deep on Saturday, as Brayden Burries once again led the scoring with 22 points.

The Arizona women are… struggling. They were blown out 90-65 against Iowa State, and had to end the game with four players on the court, as every other available player was either injured or fouled out. Becky Burke’s team is now 10-9 after a hot start to the season.

Bounce-Back: Sun Devil hoops needed a win, and they got one, taking down Cincinnati 82-68 at home — it’s been a rough trip through Arizona for the Bearcats. Moe Odum was the leading scorer for ASU, as is so often the case, with an astounding 33 points and eight assists.

The Sun Devil women took a close loss — also to Cincinnati — by a score of 66-64. Gabby Elliott contributed a team-high 19 points, but it wasn’t quite enough. Molly Miller’s squad is still in good position at 17-4 on the year, however.