Moore: Lack of diverse experience doomed Cardinals' Kliff Kingsbury era

It’s too bad that Kliff Kingsbury got fired.

It means that no matter what he tried, it just didn’t work.

Kingsbury is a football junkie who’s going to walk away with great on-the-job experience and reportedly about $30 million after getting sacked with several years left on his contract.

He was also a good guy to be around: self-deprecating and, at times, funny. Most of all, it was clear that he wanted to win; he just didn’t know how to do it.

Here’s hoping he takes a little time off to get some semblance of a work-life balance so that when he comes back to the game, he knows there’s more to life than football.

That will get rid of all the overthinking that seemed to do him in during crucial moments.

Here’s a Q-and-A to deal with what happened, and what’s next:

QUESTION: Why did Cardinals team president Michael Bidwill make the decision to get rid of Kliff Kingsbury the day after the season ended?

ANSWER: It’s fitting that the Cardinals are cleaning house on Black Monday, because the Kingsbury era failed because of a lack of diversity.

(No. Not that kind of diversity. Geez, do you have to make everything about race?!)

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The Cardinals had a young quarterback, plus a young coach, plus a homegrown general manager, which all added up to a mess for a team president who’s been involved with the same franchise for his entire life.

There wasn’t anybody around who could credibly affirm good decisions or gently correct bad ones. (Maybe a guy like Tony Dungy?)

There wasn’t an offensive guy who had seen what works at this level to get rid of some of the trial and error. (Maybe a guy like Eric Bieniemy?)

There wasn’t anybody around who could explain to an athletic young quarterback how to trust his system instead of relying on his legs all the time. (Maybe a guy like Warren Moon or Randall Cunningham or Donovan McNabb?)

And there wasn’t a front-office adviser who could make draft day or team chemistry suggestions. (Maybe like Jerry Reese?)

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Q: Is this shakeup a good move?

A: The decision to fire Kingsbury, on the same day that General Manager Steve Keim decided to step away to focus on his health, is complicated.

No one can say these last four years went well. Not with a straight face, anyway. But this year wasn’t exactly Kingsbury’s fault.

Kyler Murray was hurt. DeAndre Hopkins was suspended. Hollywood Brown was hurt. Rondale Moore was hurt. James Conner was hurt. Just about the entire offensive line missed time.

There wasn’t much opportunity for success.

At the same time, the Cardinals picked up penalty flags like a dry-cleaning service picks up dirty clothes. That speaks to coaching.

Also, the team didn’t adjust its offensive schemes to fit the personnel. They had big bruisers on the line and shifty, little guys at receiver, but they insisted on throwing screen passes the way barflies throw darts.

They should have run the ball more to set up a play-action pass game that would have vexed NFC West defenses.

Q: So now what?

A: This is probably the best job in the NFL for the right coach. There will be low expectations with the franchise quarterback healing up from a busted knee and lots of voids on the roster given all the free agents the team will have to make decisions on in the coming weeks.

If an experienced coach comes in (Jim Caldwell, Steve Wilks, Marvin Lewis or Sean Payton?) and has an idea of what system he wants to run and which players he needs to do it, this could be a fairly quick turnaround that has the opportunity to last awhile.

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Q: Is that all?

A: Nope. All of the pressure now shifts to Kyler Murray and his surgically repaired right knee. He’ll come back to a coach and an offense geared specifically to his ability to throw pinpoint deep balls and keep linebackers from cheating up or back because of his speed, which shouldn't be too badly hampered despite the surgery.

But he’s had a lot of injuries over his brief career. He’s missed time with an ankle, a hamstring, a shoulder and a knee. He’s got to learn to protect himself more, and that will come if he trusts his coaches more than he trusts his own ability.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Moore: Did poor experience diversity doom Cardinals' Kingsbury era?