Six-Pack of Keys to Mike LaFleur's Success

 

                                                                             photo credit: FOX Sports

By Walter Mitchell

Cardinals' new head coach, Mike LaFleur, finds himself in a precarious situation right off the bat as he tries to turn around the fortunes of an NFL franchise that is tied with the Tennessee Titans for the worst record (19-49) in the NFL over the past 4 seasons. 

Probably the best place to start for Mike LaFleur is to avoid the 6 biggest mistakes that Johnsathan Gannon made:

1. Not having any consistent sense of urgency to win games in year one. 

2. Rushing too quickly in assessing the player's talents and most suitable positions.

3. Appointing his own captains.

4. Wrapping his starters in pre-season bubble wrap and then when the real games commenced, coaching the players cautiously rather than aggressively. The lack of the team's overall conditioning not only hurt the team's performance, but it was also like factored into the team's injury problems.

5. Misjudging and mishandling the team's QB situation from day one.

6. Coaching one of the softest, most poorly conceived/prepared defenses in the NFL.

Opinion:

The 5 keys to Mike LaFleur's success as the Cardinals' head coach are:

1. Manifest the urgency to win games right from the get-go. When LaFleur spoke at his opening presser about his philosophy of having the coaches and players do everything they can with a sense of urgency, that was the first indication that he understands the imperative mindset that winning NFL football teams display. 

Asking the coaches and players to accept anything less than the most urgent levels of preparation and performance is an insult to them as professionals. 

The Cardinals need a head coach who can ride and exhort the team like a skilled jockey. A head coach who understands the toll that losing takes on his players in light of all the effort and sacrifices they make. 

Coaching to make the players feel comfortable and giving them, days off like in cancelling the last day of mandatory minicamp is only going to prolong the Cardinals current culture of losing.

The Cardinals won't change their fortunes until they have a head coach who is tough on the players, for their own good. 

Does Mike LaFleur have it in him to be tough and demanding? 

Does he have the gravitas? 

2. This year, all of the Cardinals' players need to feel like they will be given fair chances to compete at the positions they are best suited to play. Not only is this the best way to avoid players thinking the coaches have come in already coddling favorites, but fair competition is also the best way to build team morale and the players' confidence.

3. Unlike Gannon, Mike LaFleur needs to listen very carefully to the players in the locker room. He needs to build trust with them. They have already told him that they want Jacoby Brissett to be their starter this season. LaFleur himself saw first-hand why the Cardinals' players believe in Jacoby Brissett thanks to the gutsy Week 18 performance he had versus the Rams wherein, thanks to two 3rd quarter TD passes to Michael Wilson and Josiah Deguara, Brissett led the Cardinals to a late 3rd quarter 20-16 lead before the Cardinals' defense gave up 3 wide open TD passes from Matthew Stafford to his tight ends. 

This time around, Mike LaFleur needs to conduct a fair and honest vote for captains. It's outrageous that Gannon, with Ossenfort's approval, chose otherwise.

4.  One of Kliff Kingsbury's greatest regrets during his first couple years as head coach was not using the pre-season games more wisely in terms of getting his offense and defense in sync and in stronger football shape. Mike LaFleur needs not to worry about showing his offensive plays in pre-season because his offense is so multi-faceted and multi-dimensional it is going to be a challenge for all the DCs to prepare for. 

Mike LaFleur can't treat this team like the veteran Rams' team who has had years to get their offense and defense in sync. This Cardinals' team needs to be taught how to win. Thus, taking advantage of having a rare 4 pre-season games should be of paramount importance.

5. It's unthinkable that on the day the Cardinals are reporting to training camp, neither of their two most talented QBs, incumbent starter Jacoby Brissett and 2026 3rd round draft pick, Carson Beck, have agreed to their contracts.

The QBs in limbo scenario continues to show Michael Bidwill's and Monti Ossenfort's incompetence as team owner and GM. 

In Jacoby Brissett's case, not only have the players expressed their confidence in him, Budda Baker and Devin McCourtey who have combined for 7 NFL All-Pro awards and 10 Pro Bowl selections, both of whom have been in close contact with Jacoby Brissett, have confirmed that Jacoby's contract wishes are completely reasonable to the point of being modest. Why Bidwill and Ossenfort have been allowing this contract situation to fester is preposterous, especially given the support that Jacoby has been receiving from his teammates, both present and former. 

In Carson Beck's case, without being able to agree to his contract, he was essentially a hold-in during OTAs. Incredible to think that during all of those weeks, he never took any snaps with the 1st and 2nd team offenses, with Gardner Minshew taking the first team reps and Kaden Slovis taking the 2nd team reps --- for the same reasons why Jacoby Brissett was a hold-in during mandatory minicamp. 

The other thing about Carson Beck's situation is the sheer difficulty of learning, let alone mastering Mike LaFleur's offense. Ty Simpson, who is on a crash course to learn Sean McVay's offense, recently said, "learning this offense is like trying to drink water from a fire hose." 

What Mike LaFleur needs to do is take command of the QB situation himself. He needs to impress upon Bidwill and Ossenfort the urgency for them to get Jacoby Brissett and Carson Beck under contract today so that LaFleur, the coaches and the players can start training camp with a full stable of QBs and with all of the 90 players on the roster under contract. 

It is just going to look all the more pathetic if the two most talented QBs on the team, on day one of practice, are standing off to the side as hold-ins. 

The Cardinals have all of the resources they need to get this done and to give Mike LaFleur and the team a fighter's chance to compete at the highest levels in order to do everything they can to win games. 

6. Mike LaFleur has the unique ability to show the Cardinals' defensive players the advanced scouting the Rams had on the Cardinals' defense as a whole and the strengths and weaknesses of the Cardinals' defensive personnel. 

Mike LaFleur can show the Cardinals' players in extraordinary detail how the Rams were able to dismantle and eviscerate their defense to the tune of 

* 82 points (41.0 ppg)

* 925 yards (462.5 ypg)

*How Matthew Stafford passed for a combined 47/71 (66.0%), 540 yards, 7 TDs, 0 ints, 122.9 RTG

* How Rams accumulated a combined 392 rushing yards at a whopping 8.5 ypc and 3 TDs. 

LaFleur can also show each returning player what the Rams' advanced scouts wrote about their strengths and weaknesses and how they felt the Rams' offense could exploit those weaknesses.

The questions are:

Does Mike LaFleur have the nerve to share those highly critical reports, knowing some of the players' feelings might be hurt? 

Will Mike LaFleur influence Nick Rallis to make the major changes that are necessary now more than ever?

Thus far the signs have not looked promising.

Zaven Collins and Budda Baker have both said that Nick Rallis has not proposed any major changes. Just a few minor ones.

Also, perhaps more alarmingly, Mike LaFleur attributed the Cardinals' defensive implosion last season in large part due to injuries, even though 6 of the Cardinals' Week 1 starters (Collins, Campbell, Tomlinson, Robinson, Sweat, Davis-Gaither) on the Cardinals' front 7, plus the two starting safeties (Baker, Thompson) started 16+ games. 

Two-Way Impact

The interesting aspect of Mike LaFleur's capacities as the new head coach are how profoundly he can impact both sides of the ball. He, therefore, may be just as important in trying to make the team's defense far more aggressive and competitive as he is in trying to make the Cardinals' offense one of the most difficult to defend in the NFL. 

One thing that should help for sure --- the Cardinals' defense will be practicing against a McVay/Shanahan style of offense every day in practice. Plus, Brian Fleury. the Seahawks' new offensive coordinator spent the last 7 years as one of Kyle Shanahan's assistants (DQC, OQC, TEs coach, running game coordinator).

Protégés vs. Masters in NFC West

Two protégées --- Mike LaFleur and Brian Fleury --- taking on ---

Two masters --- Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan ---

Running versions of the same offense.

Wild.