Missed opportunities make Super Bowl 57 sour for Arizona Cardinals
A year ago, Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill acknowledged it would be swell if the trend of teams winning Super Bowls in their own stadiums continued.
The Buccaneers won Super Bowl 55 in Tampa, becoming the first team to win a Super Bowl at home. The Rams repeated the accomplishment, winning the 56th in Inglewood, Calif.
The Cardinals’ attempt this season to turn an anomaly into a cliché failed miserably. They went 4-13 and won only one game at State Farm Stadium. That includes losses to the Chiefs and Eagles, which means the winner of Super Bowl 57 on Feb. 12 will have won more games in Glendale this season than the Cardinals.
Super Bowl 57 will accentuate the Cardinals failures of the last decade or so, including getting rejected, being outwitted and other assorted instances of seizing up at critical times, instead of seizing the moment.
Super Bowl 57 prediction:Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs game to be a thriller
Cardinals coach Andy Reid?
It has a nice ring to it. Ten years ago, the Eagles fired Reid, a fact you will read and hear 10,343 times in the next two weeks. The Cardinals had just fired Ken Whisenhunt, and they were interested in Reid.
Supposedly, Reid was interested in the Cardinals. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported a source said he was “95 percent” certain Reid would become the Cardinals next coach.
But the Cardinals never interviewed Reid. He quickly made a deal with the Chiefs, and has guided them to five consecutive AFC title games and three Super Bowls in the last four years.
In this instance, the Cardinals handled rejection well. They hired Bruce Arians, who took them to the playoff twice in five years and has more wins than any other coach in franchise history.
Cardinals quarterback Patrick Mahomes?
It could have been. Arians and former General Manager Steve Keim fell in love with Mahomes in the months before the 2017 draft. They were confident that Mahomes, or Deshaun Watson, would be available with the 13th overall pick.
But the Chiefs were infatuated with Mahomes, too, and knew they had to trade ahead of the Cardinals to get him. They did, moving up to 10th to take a franchise quarterback.
Watson was gone, too, by the 13th pick, and the Cardinals took linebacker Haason Reddick.
It was a gross miscalculation by the Cardinals, who spent the next three years searching for their franchise quarterback.
How to watch:Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles game schedule, TV, announcers for Super Bowl 57
Speaking of Reddick
He wrecked the 49ers in the NFC title game, finishing with two sacks, a tackle for loss, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble. Over the past three seasons, no NFL player has forced more fumbles.
Watching him rush off the edge, it’s hard to fathom that the Cardinals, and many other teams, thought Reddick’s future in the NFL was at inside linebacker.
The Cardinals tried him there. And tried. And tried some more. They finally moved him outside in 2020 and he responded with 12.5 sacks.
By then, however, it was obvious Reddick wanted to move on. The two sides were cordial, but the relationship was fractured. Reddick moved on to Carolina, collected 11 sacks and a big pay day from the Eagles in free agency.
He finished the regular season with 16 sacks, one of four Eagles with at least 10.
Speaking of pass rush
It’s pretty important in a passing league. The Eagles led the NFL with 70 sacks. The Chiefs were second with 55. Super Bowl 57 likely will come down to which offensive line protects the quarterback better.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, failed to adequately address their need at pass rusher a year ago. They finished with 36 sacks. Only two teams with fewer, Jacksonville and Cincinnati, made it to the playoffs.
Who is favored?:Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles odds
Quarterback is pretty important, too
And all the better if that quarterback is young. The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts is 24 and in his third season. Mahomes is 27 and his sixth.
Hurts is an MVP contender this season and still playing under his rookie contract. That’s helped the Eagles build a deep and talented roster around him.
The Chiefs did the same thing before signing Mahomes to an extension three years ago, after his third season.
The Cardinals have failed to do the same with Kyler Murray, who signed a $230 million extension last summer, after his third season. The Cardinals need upgrades throughout the roster and have only one more year before Murray’s cap number leaps from $16 million to almost $52 million.
The failure to build around Murray, and his regression this season, are why Keim is no longer the general manager and Kliff Kingsbury no longer the coach.
Experience means something
The playoffs served as a reminder that experience matters when it comes to choosing a head coach. Kingsbury had never worked at the NFL level and needed Keim’s help on the first order of business for a new coach: hiring a staff.
It’s not a surprise that the candidates the Cardinals are interviewing to replace Kingsbury have extensive NFL backgrounds.
Hiring someone with Reid’s pedigree, or Sean Payton’s, is hard, especially for the Cardinals, who have lost at least 10 games in 18 of their 35 seasons in Arizona.
But identifying, hiring and then supporting someone with no previous head coaching experience shouldn’t be as hard as the Cardinals have made it look over the years.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni worked 13 years as an NFL assistant before becoming a head coach for the first time. Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor spent six years as an NFL assistant. The 49ers Kyle Shanahan was an NFL assistant for 15 years before becoming a head coach.
The Cardinals tried the out-of-the-box route by hiring Kingsbury. All that did was remind us how handy boxes can be sometimes.
Who wins Super Bowl 57?:Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles picks, predictions
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Super Bowl 2023 highlights many Arizona Cardinals missteps
