Member » Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwill went ou

TEMPE Youth Antoine Bethea Jersey , Ariz. (AP) — tside the traditional boundaries to find his new head coach, identifying Kliff Kingsbury as someone who can ignite the team’s moribund offense and mold Josh Rosen into a dynamic NFL quarterback.Kingsbury, with no NFL coaching experience and a losing record in six seasons at Texas Tech but a history of high-scoring offenses and prolific quarterbacks, was introduced as the Cardinals coach at a news conference at the team’s headquarters on Wednesday.Kingsbury called it “an incredible opportunity.”The reason for the hire, Bidwill made clear, is Kingsbury’s record as an innovative offensive coach.“Look at today’s NFL and you look at the college game, especially the last several years, has come into the pro game,” Bidwill said. “When you look at the output of his offenses, both when he was a coordinator in college and as a head coach, it’s really impressive, the amount of points he puts up, where he positions his offenses. And you look at the six quarterbacks that he tutored and coached that have come into the National Football League.”Among those quarterbacks are Patrick Mahomes, Case Keenum, Johnny Manziel and Baker Mayfield, who played at Texas Tech before transferring to Oklahoma.Kingsbury believes he can incorporate the high-scoring system he had at Texas Tech into the NFL.“I think that’s going to be the exciting part for me Stitched Josh Bynes Jersey ,” he said. “You watch the trends in the NFL. College football infiltrated that. There’s a lot of similar concepts to what we’ve done on the college level that are being widely used and are really successful in the league right now. … I do think there are a lot of things we did at Texas Tech that can be successful.”The Cardinals ranked last in the NFL in every major offensive category last season, so Bidwill went after someone who could turn that around.“The most successful teams in the league are teams that have great offenses, top 10 offenses,” he said. “Those are the teams that are in the Super Bowls, win divisions. We wanted to hire a great offensive mind. We wanted to make sure that we hired someone with head coaching experience and weren’t particularly concerned if it was at the college or pro level.“One name that kept coming back to us over and over as one of the most innovative bright minds as an offensive play caller and as an offensive mind is Kliff Kingsbury.”Kingsbury was fired after compiling a 35-40 record in six seasons at Texas Tech and, just over a month ago, was hired as offensive coordinator at Southern Cal. When USC wouldn’t allow him to talk to NFL teams, Kingsbury resigned and was interviewed by the New York Jets and Cardinals.“It’s been a whirlwind, I can say that,” he said. “When I took the job at USC I couldn’t be more thrilled to have that job. I thought it was an incredible opportunity with coach (Clay) Helton, Mr. Swann (athletic director Lynn Swann), that program, that tradition. But this is just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”Kingsbury said his first order of business is building a staff, most significantly finding a defensive coordinator. He said he’s “leaned heavily” on Cardinals general manager Steve Keim in that process. Keim said the Cardinals will look to return to the 3-4 defensive scheme that they had in the Bruce Arians years. In its one season under coach Steve Wilks, Arizona switched to a 4-3 scheme and it never seemed to fit the personnel on hand.“I don’t think there’s any doubt that a veteran defensive coordinator would be ideal in this situation,” Keim said.Kingsbury said he has “some great candidates” for the job.“It will be an attacking style Youth Josh Bynes Jersey ,” he said. “We want to be aggressive and get this defense back to where it’s been previous to last year.”Kingsbury said he’s talked to Rosen, who had a difficult rookie season behind an offensive line decimated by injury.“Josh Rosen is incredibly talented, one of the most talented throwers you’ll see,” Kingsbury said, “a young player obviously that I’m excited to work with and develop. But as a pure thrower, it’s hard to find a guy that throws it better.”He said he wants to “get to know Josh, find out what makes him tick.”“I do think he wants to be a great player in this league,” Kingsbury said. “I think he’s very competitive. You watch him play this year, some of the shots he took and continued to get up, continued to fight. That says a lot about a young man so I’m excited to develop that relationship.” On early downs the Arizona Cardinals need to go with "the beef" up front—-play Corey Peters at 34SDE, Mike Brown at 34NT and Rodney Gunter at 34WDE. First and foremost, the Cardinals have to load...The Revenge of the Birds podcastSuggested Changes for Cardinals’ DefenseNew,26commentsMDTOn early downs the Arizona Cardinals need to go with “the beef” up front—-play Corey Peters at 34SDE, Mike Brown at 34NT and Rodney Gunter at 34WDE. First and foremost, the Cardinals have to load up the front 7 to stop the run.I would suggest that on early downs the Cardinals start Brooks Reed or the quickly emerging Pete Robertson at 34OLB opposite captain Chandler Jones. Keep 37 year old Terrell Suggs fresh to rush the edge on passing downs.On passing downs—-rush the QB with T-Sizzle, Zach Allen Stitched Andy Lee Jersey , Rodney Gunter and Chandler Jones. In the middle, 34MLB Jordan Hicks needs to be the chief communicator and leader by example. Hicks and D.J. Swearinger are the temp setters. Hopefully Hicks is 100% correct in his belief that 34WLB Haason Reddick is going to have a big year. It is quite possible that Reddick will amass more than 10 sacks as a roving blitzer.The Cardinals need to make the middle even stronger by moving D.J. Swearinger back to FS where he belongs and where he is one of the more effective intimidators in the NFL. WRs and TEs are loath to catch the ball over the middle with Swearinger bearing down on them. Plus, Swearinger is a force of nature storming the alleys on running plays from the deep middle.Now that the Cardinals will be missing Robert Alford and Patrick Peterson for an extended period of time—-they need to make an adjustment in their coverage preferences. Alford and Peterson excel at the kind of press coverage that Cardinals’ DC Vance Joseph wants—-but with Chris Jones, Tramaine Brock and Byron Murphy as the starting CBs the Cardinals would be better off playing them primarily in “off-coverage”—-in other words, by having them play a 5-7 yard cushion on the snap so that they can keep square to their man and the QB. These are not the type of CBs you want turning their backs to the QBs. Byron Murphy excelled in “off-coverage” in both man to man and zone at Washington.So did Budda Baker—-which is why Joseph should utilize Baker’s versatility in pass coverage and play him in key zone spots and key man matchups as a perimeter CB, a slot CB and a box cover S. Of all of the cover men remaining, Baker may be the best in press and zone coverage, that is until Byron Murphy gets his feet under him.The addition of SS Jalen Thompson allows Vance Joseph to move Budda Baker around like a queen on the chessboard. Thompson is a physical, energetic player both versus the run and in coverage. Meanwhile, Deionte Thompson should be a strong asset as a Cover 2 FS in the nickel and dime packages.Not only should the Cardinals send furious 5-6 man pass rushes—-they should send an array of run blitzes as well.Vance Joseph needs to get his players into attack mode. In the first two pre-season games the starters have been playing on their heels, just as they did so often last year. The Raiders game was eerily reminiscent of Game 1 at home versus the Redskins last year—-which is why Steve Keim has been serving the players due notice this early into the pre-season in an effort to combat a painful and frustrating sense of deja vu. This is a defense that needs to be all-out aggressive. This is not a unit that is built to be a bend but don’t break type of defense. Besides—-this defense should be gung ho about getting the ball back in the hands of the Cardinals’ offense. Opponents will be trying their utmost to keep the Cardinals’ offense on the sidelines for lengthy periods of time. Yes—-adjust and play off-coverage—-but with the purpose of seeing the football better and doing everything they can to jump routes, to make deflections and to react quickly while the ball is in the air. If the front 7 is in attack mode, the Cardinals can increase their chances of creating momentum swinging turnovers, sacks and tackles for loss. That needs to be the goal and the pervasive mindset.