Why the Cardinals' Interest in Ron Rivera?
By Walter Mitchell
As is seemingly always the case when Michael Bidwill is conducting a head coach search, there are elements of mystery as to what his ultimate motives are.
When the news broke yesterday that the Cardinals have interviewed Ron Rivera, who hasn't coached in the NFL since 2023, it would be safe to say that this came as quite a surprise (or flat-out shock) to Cardinals' fans.
Like they say, "make it make sense."
The only thing I can think of is that one of Michael Bidwill's top priorities in this coaching search all along has been his and Monti Ossenfort's desire to retain Nick Rallis as the team's defensive coordinator.
It seemed from the get-go that Bidwill and Ossenfort have been going very heavily after defensive-minded head coaching candidates, such as:
* Robert Saleh
* Vance Jospeh
* Anthony Campanile (twice)
* Jeff Hafley
* Raheem Morris (twice)
* Anthony Weaver (twice)
* Chris Shula
* Jesse Minter
* Matt Burke
And now ---
* Ron Rivera
This begs the question ---> have Bidwill and Ossenfort been asking these top defensive candidates to keep Nick Rallis as DC so as they could mentor him and steer him in the right directions?
Robert Saleh has already avowed that he is going to call the defensive plays for the Titans.
Jeff Hafley has indicated that he fully intends to call the plays for the Dolphins.
One cannot imagine that Anthony Campanile would want to relinquish play calling duties after the phenomenal job he's been doing with the Jaguars, who by the way, likely gave him in excess of $5M to stay.
One would imagine that Jesse Minter is going to call the plays for the Ravens.
Rule of Thumb
If you ask new head coaches what their staffing priorities are, the first one that comes to mind is "hire your own guys."
It's a loyalty thing.
This is called a clear and clean transfer of power from one administration to the next.
Therefore, if the Cardinals' coaching candidates are being asked by Bidwill and Ossenfort to retain certain coaches starting with DC Nick Rallis (Jeff Rodgers too? TE coach Ben Steele, perhaps? Justin Frye? Drew Terrell?) how many head coaching candidates would be willing to agree to such a quid pro quo?
The answer is --- not many.
Yet, for Ron Rivera as a head coach and mentor, he might be the one most apt to jump at that possibility.
The rest of the defensive candidates are in their prime. And most of them, quite understandably, would like a clean slate with regard to all staffing appointments.
Now, if a quid pro quo involving Nick Rallis is true, what irks me to no end is how Bidwill and Ossenfort would prefer to have Nick Rallis still calling the plays instead of a rising superstar in Anthony Campanile, who turned a #32 ranked defense into the #1 run defense in the league and the #2 leader in takeaways.
Bidwill and Ossenfort sat there for weeks watching the softest defense in the NFL And they did nothing to try to guide the coaches out of their doldrums. Nothing. A savvy GM would have summoned Gannon and Rallis into his office and told them to ditch the soft zones and play aggressive man-to-man. Cover everyone. Including pass eligible linemen like Cody Ford.
Should any of the Cardinals' offensive candidates want to accept Nick Rallis as his DC? After Rallis' defense quit over the last third of the games and were the #32 defense in tackling?
No freaking way.
Google Search
I just Googled Nick Rallis' name to make sure but he is still listed as the defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals. He is.
Now that Jonathan Gannon was hired by the Packers and Packers' LB coach Sean Duggan has joined Jeff Hafley with the Dolphins, it would seem to be a sure bet that Gannon will want Nick Rallis to join him.
To anyone's knowledge that hasn't happened yet.
Which adds to the mystery as to why.
It's quite possible that Nick Rallis told Michael Bidwill and Monti Ossenfort that he has a completely modified system he wants to run and that he was handcuffed the past three years having to run Jonathan Gannon's "caution and cushion" style of offense. It's entirely possible that they believe him enough to make keeping him a priority.
The irony is, now that Jonathan Gannon is gone, veteran coaches are now being considered.
And then the other elephant in the quid pro quo discussion is, of course, Kyler Murray.
How could Bidwill and Ossenfort even entertain a conversation about keeping Kyler? How could Kyler ever get excited about playing for the Cardinals again after the homework clause, trade parading and silent benching?
Yet, as I iterated on the Red Rain Podcast last week, "Bidwill and Ossenfort do more waffling than a Belgian IHOP."
So, the point is, who really knows what's going on?
These thoughts are a guess at making the Rivera candidacy and the holdups with other candidates make sense.
Could the Cardinals' 2026 coaching staff be:
* HC - Ron Rivera
* DC Nick Rallis
* OC Drew Terrell
Your guess is as good as mine.
Note: speaking of the Red Rain Podcast, we are waiting to tape the next show after the Cardinals' coaching hire is announced. We thought it might be this week, but, then again, maybe not.
Doesn’t make any sense why they would want to keep Rallis. By coaching standards he is making peanuts and obvious to all he was overmatched against all division teams and shown no signs of adapting modifying or adjusting his defense during his time here. Just confirms that these two are clueless. Monti is a transparent yes man with no integrity and should have the door hit him on his backside. A purely cheap move for everyone to see how Jr. is as bad as his Old Man Dollar Bill.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know whats going on with the coaching hire of the AZ Cardinals? Not a chance of snow in hell! Michael Bidwill still showing his desire to keep tight control of his sycophants. It would be just the Bidwillian mine of pyrite to force his new HC with his chosen staff. Nothing with this organizations ownership should surprise us anymore. To strap another regime with a player of Kyler Murrays caliber sounds logical (from mind of Bidwill). After all he was a #1 draft selection. Never you mind he has regressed in every aspect of his 7-year career. $$$ over Winning, Lies and Secrets over Honesty and Integrity... I really, really wish I was wrong about the state of our organization. Its been this way since Bidwill (Charles) purchased the team. Should we expect any different? Sadly we hoped Michael would be different than his forefathers.
ReplyDeleteI am confident that we all share in your frustration to the point of outrage, Redrun. It;s always clear that Bidwill goes into HC searches with no distinct plan. But also, with an agenda to make the signing on his terms regarding coaches and personnel. Which of course means being the last or one of the last to make a decision.
DeleteWhen there are few or no options left, you have more leverage negotiating then when there are many chairs available.
DeleteYes, I am frustrated at a lack of plan. As a fan I/we wish for nothing more than a competitive product. One we can enjoy and cheer for our coaches and players. The product we are provided has led many of us to stop supporting the franchise financially through season tickets being cancelled, no merchandise purchases, and worst of all cursing at our television. While I've been a Cardinal fan since they moved to AZ, I find it more frustrating than ever to get excited or even have a positive feeling about the direction of the franchise.
DeleteJust my 2 cents but here is what I see. By far, the best HC hire since the Cards moved to AZ is BA who brought TB with him. That was a dream team hire IMO. They finally got it right. They found the diamond in the rough. For once, they were the smartest HC needy team in the room. Even though TB left after 2 seasons and BA never got this team to the big show, that hire for a team like the Cardinals was a huge success. After BA, MB and SK decide to look for more diamonds in the rough and hire Steve Wilks. After Wilks 3-win first season they get impatient, fired Wilks and tried once again to be the smartest team in the room by hiring a college coach/QB whisperer with no prior NFL experience and then draft a QB he had worked with, with their #1 overall pick. I guess on paper it looked good but it just didn't pan out for a host of reasons. So they fire K2 and hire another first time HC who was just in the SB, again trying to be the smartest team in the room. JG doesn't pan out and MB is once again on the hunt with two prior HC's still on the payroll.
ReplyDeleteSo, my point is, after Arians, MB has tried to recapture that BA-TB magic in a bottle but instead, has failed miserably making this team look less and less desirable to future qualified HC candidates with each HC failure. I think after interviewing more inexperienced first time HC candidates this year, MB decided he either needs to hire a veteran HC or hire one veteran ex-HC as a coordinator who knows what the heck he is doing to mentor the rookie HC.
I hope this is just extreme due diligence.
ReplyDeleteEvery 3 years Mike the Football Maven Bidwill gets out his dart board and points and shoots at names for the next scapegoat hire. He hasn't bothered to update the board since Rivera was fired 3 seasons ago following a 4 win season with a 1 game improvement over the last Mikey Scapegoat's record. There is no bottom of the barrel when hiring planned failure.
ReplyDeleteWhy would any new coach want to accept a freshman defensive coordinator with an absolutely terrible record? What is the fascination with Nick Rallis?. Our defense has been one of the worst units in the league in scheme and execution. If they want to keep him on as a position coach ok maybe.It feels they are trying to put together a patch work staff. It didn't work with Kliff and its not going to work with a new head coach. At this point it almost feels like they are looking for candidates to accept this absurd approach.
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced MB has ultimate motives or any sort of thought process for running the team. I believe he mostly just goes off vibes.
ReplyDeleteReportedly we’re getting a last ditch interview with Kubiak with weekend. Unless Bidwill planned all along to give him a blank check (ha ha), I have no idea why we’re pushing LaFleur to the side for this. An organization, an owner, without a clue.
ReplyDelete