The Arizona Cardinals selected Steve Wilks to be their new head coach.
I love following the coaching carousel and making judgments about the good/bad hires that follow. In an exercise like that, you always want to wait until the main positions are filled (including offensive and defensive coordinators) because they’re also key to determining how well a whole staff may function together.
Now that the Arizona Cardinals have finally completed their staff, we can start the grading process. Here are my opinions of their moves, but feel free to add your own below.
ARIZONA CARDINALS
Head Coach: Steve Wilks, DC, Carolina Panthers
His resume
Looking back 20 years and you’d never have guessed Steve Wilks would leap up to become an NFL head coach. His first coaching gigs came at tiny schools: including Johnson C. Smith (which is apparently a real place?) and Savannah State, where he briefly served as a head coach.
Wilks eventually made his way to the NFL in 2005 and had found steady work as a defensive backs coach for the next decade. He followed Ron Rivera to San Diego and then Carolina, becoming a chief lieutenant for him. In fact, Wilks received a promotion to “assistant head coach” prior to his promotion to defensive coordinator (replacing Sean McDermott.)
Although he only served in that role for one year, Wilks showed well, upping the pressure packages and keeping the Panthers in the top 10 in both run and pass defense. He earned attention and interviews from several franchises, snagging the job in Arizona.
His strengths
Although his experience as a defensive coordinator may be limited, Wilks projects well as a leader and head coach. The fact that he served as “assistant head coach” for three seasons in Carolina may have prepped him for that role better than any sort of playcalling duties.
In terms of interviews, Wilks comes across as a strong and competent leader. At 48, he may be in that “sweet spot” of being experienced enough to lead a team, but not too old where he becomes stodgy and outdated. The fact that he broke from Carolina tradition and brought so many blitzes attests to that creative approach.
His flaws
Like Mike Vrabel, Steve Wilks has only served as a defensive coordinator for one season. He had more success than Vrabel in that one year, but it still represents a limited sample size. He became a hot name and landed a job in a hurry, without any sense of repeat success. There’s naturally a risk involved there.
Wilks will also have to rely on his offensive coordinator on the other end because he has limited experience there (although he did play some receiver as a player). The Carolina Panthers offense never quite found consistent footing under Rivera, so it’s difficult to tell if Wilks came away with that with any sort of strong philosophy about how to run his offense or what to look for in a coordinator.
Overall
This move naturally reminds you of Mike Vrabel, a rising star coach with limited experience. There’s a chance that Wilks turns out to be a star, but there’s also a chance that he proves to be in over his head. Like Vrabel, his success may largely depend on his coordinators. I’ll give this a grade: B for those reasons.
Offensive Coordinator: Mike McCoy, former OC, Denver
The Cardinals went with a traditional approach: pairing their defensive-minded rookie head coach with a veteran on offense who can handle that side of the ball on his own.
Mike McCoy certainly has a lot of experience, some good and some bad. His success as an OC in Denver largely translated to offensive success as the head coach in San Diego, although he was done in by some bad luck and bad game management.
I thought McCoy was a home run hire for Denver last year, in a very similar situation (with rookie head coach Vance Joseph). The fact that he got fired mid-season shakes my confidence to some degree. After all, McCoy’s entering almost the exact same position here, handling the offense for a rookie and inexperienced defensive coach.
Still, the logic behind the move makes sense and the resume is strong (as far as OCs go), so I’d have to give this a B+.
Defensive Coordinator: Al Holcomb, LB coach, Carolina
I’ll be honest, Al Holcomb was completely off the radar for me prior to this hire. I hadn’t really heard his name before, or in connection to any DC jobs around.
After watching interviews with him, I came away impressed (same with new Carolina DC Eric Washington.) Of course, you do have to wonder: which was the preferred assistant of the two? Presumably, Carolina would keep the one they liked more. Could Ron Rivera’s “bench” really be this deep to support this many good young coaches? It’s possible.
At the end of the day, it may not matter much. OC was a more important hire for this team, given Wilks’ background. Holcomb represents a safety blanket in a way for Wilks, and someone he can trust to have his back and implement his system. I’ll give this grade a B for those reasons.
Overall grade
In terms of the timeline and hiring cycle, it certainly felt like Arizona had the “last choice” among the thin pool of head coaching candidates this season.
That said, I think they did a solid job filling their opening. They could have defaulted to known quantities in-house, but they’re taking a chance on a promising rookie coach and pairing him with a veteran OC. On paper, that makes sense. If this team fails, I think it’ll be more based on the roster (and lack of QB) than the coaching staff. grade: B+.
