While he was the Cardinals’ and Buccaneers’ coach, Bruce Arians loved to have fun with his teams after games while enjoying a few cocktails. The cocktail that fueled Arians’ success at both stops was a mix of key ingredients including: a change in coaching culture, timing and quarterback play.
Arians thinks that all of those ingredients may be present with the current edition of the Cardinals. Jonathan Gannon is in his second season as Arizona’s coach. GM Monti Ossenfort has overhauled much of the roster with a mix of young and hungry players, and QB Kyler Murray is feeling healthy and happy again as he enters his sixth season as a pro.
For those reasons, Arians didn’t hesitate when asked if the Cardinals could be a playoff team in 2024.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt,” he said. “A lot of things can change in one season.”
The list of NFL coaches who have made quantum leaps in the second and third years of their tenure with a team is long. The Cardinals have their own examples.
Ken Whisenhunt took the Cardinals to the Super Bowl in his second season, and then went 10-6 and won a second straight NFC West title in 2009.
Arians went 11-5 and 13-3 in seasons two (2014) and three (2015) in Arizona, making the playoffs both years.
Even Kliff Kingsbury went 8-8 and 11-5 in his second and third seasons as Cardinals coach, but the best example of the early bump may be Patriots coach Bill Belichick. New England went from 5-11 to 11-5 in Belichick’s second season with the Patriots in 2001. They also won the Super Bowl.
“When you add those special pieces, usually it just permeates through your locker room,” Arians said.
For Arians, those special pieces were quarterback Carson Palmer in Arizona, and Tom Brady in Tampa. Palmer had the Cardinals off to an 8-1 start in 2014 before a torn ACL ended his season and the team’s lofty postseason hopes.
The same guy (Brady) who helped Belichick win that Super Bowl in both men’s second season in New England helped Arians win a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2020 after Arians’ 7-9 inaugural season.
“First of all, I inherited good players and you’re not going to win without them,” Arians said. “But the quarterback is key.
“Not that Jameis Winston wasn’t a special player. He did throw for 5,000 yards (5,109) and 33 touchdowns. He did have 30 interceptions, but we thought we could correct that. We weren’t going to give up on him, but you always check behind door number two, and that just happened to be Tom Brady. That was the missing piece to the confidence of the locker room, as was Carson. Both teams had good defenses, but once the rest of the team feels like they have a quarterback who can win, it just changes the whole culture.”
Arians is probably underselling his own impact. Especially early in his tenure, a coach can alter the vibe and culture of a dressing room with a fresh approach. Gannon has earned a reputation as a players’ coach, but one who holds his players to a high standard. Arians took a similar, if more gregarious approach in Arizona and Tampa.
“When I left Alabama and coach [Bear] Bryant to become the head coach at Temple at age 30, the last thing he told me was, ‘Coach ’em hard and hug ’em later,'” Arians said. “I saw him do that at extreme levels. Nobody was more of a players’ coach than coach Bryant because you wanted to please that man.
“Coaching was definitely a part of both of the situations in Arizona and Tampa. You had to make them believe they were good enough. We always had the three words ‘trust, loyalty and respect’ printed everywhere, and then when we got to Tampa, we just put up a big picture of a Super Bowl ring with the message: ‘One team, one cause.'”
Arians likes what he has seen from Gannon early in his Arizona tenure.
“I love the hire. He’s been a winner everywhere he’s been,” Arians said. “Getting Kyler healthy and ready to go is really the key now. Hopefully, he’s matured enough to take over a team. If he has, the sky’s the limit.”
It’s no secret that Murray’s performance and health will dictate the Cardinals’ fortunes. QB play is critical to any NFL team’s success. Hockey’s goaltender may be the only comparable when it comes to the importance and impact of one position on a team’s performance.
“I think Kyler’s evaluation is still up in the air,” said Arians, who built a reputation as a quarterback whisperer in an NFL tenure that included work with Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Palmer and Brady. “Kyler makes amazing plays and some really poor ones, but he’s a very talented young guy.
“The problem with guys who depend a lot on their legs is they have leg injuries. All of a sudden, they have to depend on their arm and their brain, but I think he’s at that point now in his maturation process where he can depend on those things to win games, and not just depend on his legs.”
So will the Cardinals make their seventh postseason in their 37-year Valley tenure? Vegas doesn’t think so, and some analysts agree that such expectations are a stretch, but we’re not talking about a seismic shift in fortunes. With the NFL’s expanded playoff format of 14 teams (debuted in 2020), and its expanded schedule of 17 games, it might only require winning nine games to get in.
If you think that’s too much for a team coming off back-to-back four-win seasons, remember that the Houston Texans went from consecutive seasons of three, four and four wins to an 11-7 record in 2023, an AFC South title and a playoff win. Remember that the Indianapolis Colts went from four wins in 2022 to nine wins and a wild card berth in 2023. Remember that the Los Angeles Rams went from five wins in 2022 to 10 wins and a playoff berth in 2023.
You can find these examples throughout the NFL’s Super Bowl era because the league is built for parity. The salary cap and draft processes make it hard to maintain success, but easier to recapture it. And again, so much is dependent on quarterback play.
There are still questions about Murray, about the defensive line, about the cornerbacks, and about the linebackers.
But every team has questions at this point of the offseason, a topic that PHNX’s Bo Brack, Johnny Venerable and Damon Fairall discussed recently.
We know that Murray is happy, healthy and showing more maturity. Ossenfort and Gannon have largely swept away the baggage of the past regime while embracing a youthful roster. And Ossenfort has rebuilt the offense to give Murray more weapons.
Could that be enough in a league where 54 percent of games were decided by one score or less last season? Arians doesn’t think it’s a stretch. The Cardinals may have answered enough questions to creep back into the postseason.
“When we went in, we were the bottom feeders of that division and then we won the division a couple of years,” Arians said. “I can see that happening again if they stay healthy and they are bought in.”
How will Gannon know when the culture and belief are in place?
“When they’re repeating in the press what you tell them,” Arians said, laughing. “I don’t read the papers or the websites other than to know what my players are saying. Before every practice, I wanted all the clips from around the country on my desk before I met with them.
“You know you got ’em when they’re repeating the message.”
Top photo of Kyler Murray taking a selfie with Cardinals fans via Getty Images
