The Arizona Cardinals have fired head coach Kliff Kingsbury after a horrific season that saw the team finish bottom of the NFC West for the first time since 2012. He wasn’t the only casualty at the State Farm Stadium as general manager Steve Keim has also left the franchise on a particularly Black Monday.

Kingsbury led the Cardinals to the play-offs last season, the first time they’d made it to the post-season since 2015, but couldn’t repeat the feat this time around as the Cardinals finished the regular season with a woeful 4-13 record. That represents the second-worst record, with only the Chicago Bears managing a poorer performance.

Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill will hope that any incoming replacement will fare better, and any Arizona fans looking to back the team in the off-season betting may want to check this website which updates daily in terms of its odds comparison service for the NFL, while also providing informative sports betting brand reviews that will aid your wagering.

It’s worth remembering that Kingsbury signed a contract extension last year that would have seen him in place until 2027, at no doubt a great cost to Bidwill, who was clear that the decision to fire the 43-year-old was clearly not hampered by the financial ramifications of doing so; “It (the contract extension) didn’t. And, so, when you look at it, nobody here is hitting the easy button and saying, ‘Let’s just keep this thing going.’ Uh, we’ll live with the financial consequences,” The Cardinals started the season in up and down form, going 4-6 after beating reigning Super Bowl winners the Los Angeles Rams; however, it got a whole lot worse after that, with Arizona losing all the remaining seven games of the season, finishing with a poor 13-38 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Bidwill did offer praise for Kingsbury following his exit, stating; “I have been around this organization my entire life, and I don’t know any coach that has worked harder than Kliff Kingsbury,” Bidwill is said to have already interviewed candidates for the now-vacant GM role, and he wants to fill that position before he moves on to bring in a new head coach. Defensive lineman Zach Allen commented on the swift removal of the two key Cardinals backroom staff; “It was pretty crazy with everything on and off the field,” “Hopefully, we can clean all that up.” “There have definitely been too many distractions.”

This was Kingsbury’s first head coach role in the NFL following a successful five-year stint at Texas Tech between 2013 and 2018. His record over the course of his time at the Cardinals is a relatively sedate 28–37–1. There are sure to be a lot of comings and goings in the next few weeks and months, not least because there are over 30 free agents to run the rule over, and that will require relevant personnel to be in place to do so.