The Arizona Cardinals have not made the playoffs in their last four seasons and have only won 21 games total in those four seasons, including only eight in the last two seasons. For that reason, many feel that general manager Steve Keim should be on the hot seat. Many fans believe he should be fired.
Chairman and team president Michael Bidwill doesn’t agree. Just as Bidwill spoke of the confidence he has in Keim to fix the team when the team announced the firing of Steve Wilks in January 2019, he continues to give Keim support and praise.
What would Bidwill say to fans who aren’t a fan of Kiem?
“I’d say he just picked the rookie of the year,” he said in a radio interview on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM on Wednesday. “He obviously had a lot to do with hiring Kliff Kingsbury.”
Kyler Murray and Kingsbury are the two major bright spots for the team. In general, people see the Cardinals as an up-and-coming team. For that, Keim deserves credit.
“He’s done a lot of things right,” Bidwill said. “I feel like we’ve certainly turned, and for as much as the Cardinals are going in the right direction, Steve Keim deserves a lot of credit for that. I hope fans recognize that was a lot of his decision-making.”
He pointed out the trade for Kenyan Drake, who was the team’s leading rusher and looks like a player the team would like to bring back.
“There are a lot of good things that are happening,” he said.
He recognizes the criticism Keim has received but also blames last year’s issues on Keim.
“He’s received his fair share of criticism,” he added. “Some of these draft picks didn’t work out, but you look at just last year. Look at the number of starters that were not available on our defense. Had they been available, the season could have been on the defensive side of the ball much different. That had to do with injury and other things you can’t blame any general manager for.”
You can’t blame a GM for injuries of PED suspensions. The offense got better. The defense didn’t improve but because of reasons that Keim couldn’t likely have fixed.
It is true he has the team in the right direction. However, the fact they were in a bad situation to begin with was also largely his fault.
To Bidwill’s credit, he has allowed Keim to fix things. If things do get turned around, he will have been proven right and the mistakes Keim has made will simply be forgotten.
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Ep. 257
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Ep. 256
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