There appears to be a deep pattern of abuse and misconduct at the top of the Cardinals’ organization.
Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill came under fire from a former team executive Tuesday afternoon, and the allegations do not paint Bidwill’s conduct as owner in a remotely positive light.
According to an ESPN report, former Cardinals vice president Terry McDonough filed an arbitration claim against Bidwill, accusing him of cheating, discrimination and harassment. McDonough’s claim was filed to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
In a statement provided to ESPN, the Cardinals denied the allegations, saying McDonough was “lashing out” at the franchise with “disparagements and threats that are absurdly at odds with the facts.”
The Arizona Cardinals announced that they will be seeking a new head coach and general manager in 2023. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury was fired and general manager Steve Keim is no longer with the organization.
However, Keim was not fired. After taking a health-related leave of absence, he has decided to walk away and resign to focus on his health.
He had been general manager since 2013 and worked for the Cardinals for roughly half his life.
Now the search is on. The team has already interviewed two internal candidates — Adrian Wilson and Quentin Harris — and one external candidate that has not been named.
Kliff Kingsbury has been fired by the Cardinals, opening up another opportunity for Sean Payton. His market is going to heat up:
Sources: The Arizona Cardinals fired head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who 10 months ago signed a contract extension through the 2027 season.
The Cardinals still never have had a head coach – any head coach – last longer than six years while the team has existed for over 100 years. pic.twitter.com/kYWb1AfjIG
This is big. The Arizona Cardinals are firing head coach Kliff Kingsbury, which opens up another opportunity for former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton. Arizona has a relatively-healthy salary cap situation and four picks in the 2023 draft’s top three rounds, so they would be able to make moves even after acquiring Payton’s contract in a trade with New Orleans.
Crucially, Arizona owns the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft. That’s a more-valuable bargaining chip than any other team could offer the Saints. But you have to wonder if tightfisted owner Michael Bidwell would consider putting it on the table in addition to a massive contract extension with Payton.
Arizona’s season was sunk by a season-ending knee injury to franchise quarterback Kyler Murray. If Payton is on their radar, the prospect of working with Murray should be enticing. Additionally, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that Bidwell will hire a new general manager, too, opting to move on from longtime G.M. Steve Keim after he took a health-related leave of absence. If Payton wants to bring an executive from New Orleans with him like college scouting director Jeff Ireland or football administration director Khai Harley, he’ll likely have that option.
Keim, though, might remain with the organization. Schultz reports the door is open for his return in a lesser capacity.
Keim worked his way up the ranks in the Cardinals’ organization, so he very well could be willing to return.
The Cardinals will have a new general manager for the first time since 2013, when Keim was hired to replace Rod Graves. He signed a five-year contract extension through 2027 last offseason.
Currently, in Keim’s absence, Quentin Harris and Adrian Wilson are splitting duties. The Cardinals are considering keeping them both in a co-GM role.
An ESPN report details how Steve Keim and Kliff Kingsbury have not been able to “coalesce” about personnel this season,
Everything around the Arizona Cardinals seems to be a mess. General manager Steve Keim is on a health-related leave of absence that he might return from. Coach Kliff Kingsbury’s future is known. They are 4-10 and have suffered injury after injury.
They have had two coaches leave the staff with off-field situations.
Even before Keim’s leave of absence, things changed with him.
According to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Josh Weinfuss, Keim was not seen as often in the building as previous seasons.
Whatever the circumstances, multiple sources said Keim had far less of a presence in the building in 2022 than in years past, making it challenging for the head coach and general manager to coalesce on personnel matters.
It appeared in previous seasons, Keim and Kingsbury had a great working relationship. They would meet regularly. If this report is accurate, it would be difficult to see things working well.
Keim is believed to have full control of the roster and who is on it.
Keim’s future is in doubt. So is Kingsbury’s. But with the report of Keim’s situation being one that had been ongoing over the last several weeks and months, it makes sense to hear that he wasn’t around the building as much, whether it is related to his health or things that affect his health.
For things to get better moving forward, whether that includes Kime or Kingsbury, being present will be a necessity.
We have a new podcast episode. Cards Wire’s Alex Sutton joins me as we discuss the latest with the Arizona Cardinals.
We react to the leave of absence of general manager Steve Keim. We discuss potentially replacing Keim this offseason. We go over the pros and cons of firing coach Kliff Kingsbury. We look back at the good and the bad in the Cardinals’ 24-15 loss to the Denver Broncos and look ahead at their Week 16 Christmas matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Enjoy the show!
Enjoy the show with the embedded player above or by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, so you never miss a show. Make sure as well to give it a five-star rating!
Here are the approximate timestamps for the topics we discussed:
(1:00) Intros, reactions to Steve Keim’s leave of absence
(14:00) How the Cardinals can replace Keim
(30:27) The pros and cons of firing Kliff Kingsbury
(40:06) The good and bad in the loss to the Broncos
The Cardinals have only hired one outsider to be GM since before 1980. All others were internal promotions.
The Arizona Cardinals face an offseason of uncertainty. General manager Steve Keim has taken a health-related leave of absence and his return is uncertain.
In the meantime, Adrian Wilson and Quentin Harris, both of whom hold vice president titles over player personnel and pro personnel, both are splitting the duties Keim left.
With Keim’s return in doubt, it leaves the Cardinals with the decision to replace him or not.
If they do, they appear set on doing something that has been on-brand for them as a franchise — promoting internally to fill a vacant GM job.
Since the Cardinals came to Arizona, only one general manager has been hired from outside.
The one outside GM hiring was Buddy Ryan, who was hired to be head coach and GM in 1993.
Keim worked his way up through the organization. Rod Graves, his predecessor, was in a VP role with the team for several years before he was named GM. Before him, it was Bob Ferguson, who was also promoted to GM after Ryan was fired.
Before Ryan, the GM was Larry Wilson, who was a Hall of Fame player, coached the team and then worked his way up in the front office to be GM.
Wilson and Harris have been with the team for years. Wilson has ascended rather quickly through the ranks over the last eight years, while Harris has been in the organization in player personnel and scouting for 15.
An internal hiring makes sense. They have two qualified candidates who are likely going to land a GM job somewhere in the near future.
On the other hand, with some of the organizational issues on and off the field, hiring someone from the outside might be what the team needs to clean up some of the internal culture that seems to be plaguing the organization.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport says it is a situation that has been developing for as much as the last several months.
It cam as a surprise on Wednesday when the Arizona Cardinals announced that general manager Steve Keim was taking a health-related leave of absence. In early reports, it was described as an indefinite leave.
It is certainly possible that he does not return.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport had more insight on Thursday. There is “no timetable for his return.”
“It remains to be seen when he will be back with the team,” Rapoport said on NFL Network. “The future is certainly in doubt there (and) up in the air, I would say. We’ll see when and if he ends up coming back.”
Rapoport also described it as a “situation that has been developing over the course of the last several weeks and several months.”
This would suggest either a declining health problem or it could be related to something he has been doing that is affecting his health.
In the meantime, Adrian Wilson and Quentin Harris are now both splitting Keim’s duties.
As he steps away from the team for now, Quentin Harris and Adrian Wilson will take over together.
The Arizona Cardinals are dealing with yet another setback this season. The team released a statement saying that general manager Steve Keim is taking a health-related leave of absence.
The team did not comment more on the situation, citing privacy and legal reasons.
Keim did not give his normal weekly interview last Friday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM because he wasn’t feeling well.
Things have apparently gotten worse.
In the meantime, while Keim is away from the team, his duties will be carried out between vice president of player personnel Quentin Harris and vice president of pro personnel Adrian Wilson.
This has been one of the strangest calendar years for the Cardinals between the football on the field and things that have happened off of it.
Hopefully, Keim’s health issue is not too serious and he is capable of returning to work soon.
Steve Keim is “a fan” and “not a leader,” according to comments from a personnel staffer told The Score’s Jordan Schultz.
The Arizona Cardinals are not having the season they wanted. With playoff and even Super Bowl aspirations, they never got things going. Injuries and underperformance have led to a 4-8 record and many wonder if the current leadership of general manager Steve Keim and coach Kliff Kingsbury can survive the offseason, despite getting five-year extensions earlier this year.
Keim has been at the helm of the team as GM since 2013. Someone seemingly within the organization had strong words about him in a report from The Score’s Jordan Schultz.
“Keim’s a fan,” a longtime personnel staffer told Schultz. “He’s been able to keep that job because of his relationship with Bidwill, but he’s not a football savant or football mind. He’s not a leader.”
The close relationship between Bidwill and Keim is evident. Keim survived the Steve Wilks hiring with Bidwill publicly backing him.
Keim has the final decision on the roster. Much of the coaching staff was assembled by Keim with Kingsbury.
January will be an interesting month. Will there be big changes coming? Will Kingsbury survive the season? If Kingsbury is fired, will Keim be given the opportunity to hire another coach after two failed attempts?
Those are big questions facing the Cardinals in a season that has simply been disappointing.
