Former Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the NFL on Tuesday, alleging racial discrimination in its hiring practices.
There was a section within the suit that brought up the 2018 Arizona Cardinals and the decision to fire Black head coach Steve Wilks after one year on the job.
Steve Keim, who is white, retained his role as general manager following the three-win campaign, and Flores called the discrepancy a double standard.
“(Wilks) was not given any time to develop the team or culture and he was stuck with numerous burdens not of his own making,” Flores’ suit said.
Looks like the #AZCardinals are mentioned in Brian Flores’ lawsuit for their coaching flip from Steve Wilks to Kliff Kingsbury after a season of work.
The section is titled: “Double Standard” Treatment of Steve Wilks. https://t.co/4K1MGZcse1
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) February 2, 2022
Did Wilks get a fair shake in Arizona? It’s a fair question to ask and a tricky one to answer.
The 2018 Cardinals were, to put it bluntly, exceedingly awful. They finished 3-13 with a point-differential of negative-200, both of which were the worst in the league.
The team was rarely competitive, routinely overmatched. The low point came in Week 2, when Arizona had 137 total yards and five first downs in a 34-0 loss to the Rams, effectively signalling the season was over almost before it began.
The offense was a dumpster fire, finishing dead last in Football Outsiders’ efficiency rankings. That was the main reason for the firing, but should Wilks have taken the fall for those struggles?
Veteran quarterback Sam Bradford was terrible in his three starts and never played again. Young signal-caller Josh Rosen had a forgettable rookie campaign in advance of a forgettable career.
Brian Flores' suit also mentions the "double standard" experienced by former Panthers DC Steve Wilks, who was fired after one losing season in ARZ w/ a rookie QB (Josh Rosen). Meanwhile, Kliff Kingsbury went 5-10-1 his first yr in ARZ w/ rookie QB (Kyler Murray) and kept his job.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) February 1, 2022
Wilks is a defensive-minded coach, and that side of the ball did fine. The Cardinals finished No. 12 in Football Outsiders’ defensive efficiency in 2018, a solid performance that was masked by all the offensive issues.
Furthermore, the offensive coordinator that was hired — Mike McCoy — was reportedly preferred by Keim. McCoy’s schematics were unimaginative and he was fired after seven games.
Wilks’ short-lived tenure was marred by a volatile relationship with star cornerback Patrick Peterson, who asked for a trade in the middle of the year because he disliked the zone-heavy defensive coverage scheme installed by the new coaching staff.
Between the overall struggles and the high-profile dissension involving a star player, Wilks’ dismissal wasn’t seen as a shock, but what about Keim?
In his first five seasons as GM, the Cardinals went 49-30-1 and made the playoffs twice, but the roster was in shambles by 2018. Keim missed badly on his two major moves that year, paying Bradford $15.9 million in free agency and trading up to draft Rosen at No. 10 overall.
As mentioned in the suit, Keim was also suspended for five weeks prior to the season after pleading guilty to an extreme DUI that took place on July 4.
At the NFL Scouting Combine in February of 2019, I was asked by a couple national writers how Keim kept his job following the suspension and 2018 results.
The answer is likely two-fold: His track record of previous success and a longstanding relationship with owner Michael Bidwill.
Cardinals GM Steve Keim has literally worked for the franchise his ENTIRE career. He was hired as a college scout in 1999 and worked his way up over the course of over two decades to get to where he's at now.
Prob makes it hard for Michael Bidwill to want to move on from him.
— Chierstin Susel (@ChierstinSusel) January 21, 2022
Wilks didn’t have the luxury of either setup, which is probably Flores’ point in all of this. It’s hard to find footing as an NFL head coach if your lone shot is one season with a talent-bereft roster.
The Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury to replace Wilks, and the results have been solid.
The team was demonstrably better in 2019 than 2018 and reached 11 wins this season, albeit with a collapse down the stretch that led to a heated meeting involving Bidwill, Keim and Kingsbury after the season.
There was a tense meeting involving Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, GM Steve Keim and coach Kliff Kingsbury yesterday, per source. Bidwill was unhappy with late-season slide and intimated changes were possible.
"Shit hit the fan," source said.
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) January 20, 2022
Kingsbury has had the benefit of star quarterback Kyler Murray to lean on, but he was also the biggest proponent of choosing Murray No. 1 overall in the 2019 draft, and deserves credit for that.
The Cardinals are probably better off now than they would have been if Wilks remained the coach in 2019, because there is a chance Rosen would have stayed the quarterback without Kingsbury’s ardent push for Murray.
Even so, it’s hard to avoid this juxtaposition: Wilks was given just one season to prove himself after walking into a terrible situation, while the general manager that contributed to the failure is heading into his 10th season with only one playoff win on his resume.
