ason play Stitched Terrell Suggs Jersey , the criticisms of Kliff Kingsbury are growing louder.The Revenge of the Birds podcastThere’s a target on Kliff KingsburyNew,85commentsAfter a mere eight quarters of preseason play, the criticisms of Kliff Kingsbury are growing louder.MDT@johnnytouchdownFollowing the Cardinals’ embarrassing preseason showing on national television a week ago, NFL media and personalities alike have officially reopened the floodgates as to whether or not Kliff Kingsbury can be a head coach at the NFL level.”They’re going to get whipped Week 1.” said former Jets head coach and current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan. “Look, this guy (Kingsbury)…everyone talks about this great offense and all that. Yeah, if it’s fantasy football and you want points yardage, that’s great. How about wins?”It didn’t stop there.“Kingsbury, let’s face it, had the best player in our league and he was 13-16 with Pat Mahomes at quarterback. How about you worry about wins?”Rex Ryan speaks for a large majority of former and current NFL head coaches who feel as if Kingsbury was undeserving of one of the 32 best coaching jobs in all of football. Ryan himself was phased out of the NFL head coaching circuit following numerous examples of the defensive coach’s inability to adapt. Kingsbury, on the other hand, is often ridiculed due to his devotion to the “air raid” offense (made famous by his alma matter, Texas Tech), good looks, as well as his unfortunate exit as USC’s OC.You can see why Kingsbury remains an easy target for the veteran coaching fraternity, most of whom (like Ryan), remain on the outside looking in.It also doesn’t help Kingbury’s case Black Ricky Seals-Jones Jersey , through no fault of his own, that he’s following a one and done African American head coach in Steve Wilks. Many within the league felt as if Wilks was the fall man for an accumulation of poor personnel decisions by Cardinal GM Steve Keim.The latter is still employed by the team, extreme DUI and all.Wilks was famously let go following a disastrous 3-13 season in which the Cardinals finished with one of the worst offenses in league history. This led Keim and Team President Michael Bidwill to feverishly comb through the professional and college ranks in an effort to find an innovative offensive mind that could not only restore some franchise credibility but also save their young quarterback.That quarterback, of course, being Josh Rosen.During the hiring process, the front office opted not to interview a single defensive candidate. Veteran NFL offensive coaches like Jim Caldwell and Adam Gase were discussed, but inevitably it was Kingsbury who caught the eye of both Keim and Bidwill. His relaxed demeanor and young offensive mind was exactly the type of 180 the franchise was looking for following the fallout with Wilks (an older defensive coach).Fast forward to April’s draft and Rosen was promptly shipped out for Heisman winner Kyler Murray. Kingsbury’s infatuation with Murray has been well documented but it’s fair to say that if the Cardinals had gone with someone like Gase or Caldwell, Josh Rosen would still be “quarterbacking” the Arizona Cardinals.The decision to tie yourself to an undersized rookie quarterback to tailor your “college offense” around is a bold strategy that has never really been seen at the professional level.Combine that with Kingsbury’s route to the pros and you’ve got a recipe for ridicule.Following the last week’s struggles against Oakland, Fox Sports analyst Bucky Brooks made it clear who he believes should be shouldering the majority of the blame in Arizona.“I believe this is an indictment of Kliff Kingsbury. Kyler Murray needs to go to the sideline and get answers and it appears as if Kliff Kingsbury doesn’t have answers.”Brooks followed up with an assumption regarding Kingsbury and his inability to adapt from his college scheme after only seeing roughly eight quarters of preseason play.“At some point, Kliff Kingsbury needs to change the protections. And if he doesn’t have those protection adjustments in his pocket, Kyler Murray is going to get hammered”.As you can see, no one is going to give Kliff Kingsbury the benefit of the doubt. Not the media, not the coaches and not the opposing players.Oakland Raiders safety Lamarcus Joyner went as far to call the Kingbury’s offense “pretty-boy football.”“When you go against an offense like that, you have to introduce that physicality to them because they don’t want to do that.”I would imagine this won’t be the last time players refer to the Cardinal offense as soft, especially when you consider the lack of talent upfront on the offensive line. However, I commend Kingsbury’s innovative nature while also agreeing with the notion that he must adjust to the NFL game unlike his now famously used comparison: Chip Kelly.The difference between the two Ricky Seals-Jones Jersey 2019 , however, is that Kelly was a demanding dictator that meddled in personnel and refused to alter his system. Kelly believed players were expendable no matter the position and that his offense would produce regardless.However, in the case of Kliff Kingsbury, we’ve already seen an example as to why we shouldn’t be so quick to compare him to the former Eagle and Niner head coach. Kyler Murray.Kingsbury famously called Murray a “freak” and stated he’d take the former Sooner first overall if given the opportunity. He has since followed through with that statement and has crafted a “pro-style” offense mimicking much of what made Murray successful at the college level. Does that sound like Chip Kelly to you?These are the types of criticisms you’ll hear regarding Kliff Kingsbury until he is able to prove that his style of play is sustainable at the NFL level. With a roster riddled with holes and a general manager essentially on a year-to-year basis, Kliff Kingsbury is on his own... at least on the pro level. Kingsbury’s former college head coach, Mike Leach (the godfather of the “air raid” offense), does appear to have his back.“All this adapting, adapting, adapting, like the NFL is somehow some very special experience and you somehow need extremely special plays to play and all this other stuff. Well, that’s a bunch of baloney and always has been.”Let’s hope Mike is right. For the sake of the Arizona Cardinals, he better be. One of the most fascinating and relevant books I’ve read in recent years is A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, by Daniel L. Pink. Pink theorizes that in today’s world and in the future market place—-creative, right-brain thinkers will dominate the top positions and be in the highest demand. Over the past three years, we can see the application of Pink’s theory with regard to the new coaching trends in the NFL.Creativity defines what the cutting edge is—-and it often gives a team and its players a competitive advantage. Creativity bolsters team morale.Fact: Kliff Kingsbury is one of the most creative offensive innovators on planet earth.Fact: Kingsbury’s offensive designs at the college level have been hugely successful.Fact: Kingsbury’s teams at Texas Tech lost more games than they won. Fact: Kingsbury got fired after a losing season wherein his team was highly competitive, even versus ranked teams. L-Mississippi 27-47W-Lamar 77-0W-Houston 63-49W-Oklahoma St. 41-17L-West Virginia 34-42W-TCU 17-14W-Kansas 48-16L-24 Iowa St. 31-40L-4 Oklahoma 46-51L-15 Texas 34-41L-Kansas St. 6-21L Baylor 24-355-7 record—-note that Kingsbury lost his starting QB Youth Terrell Suggs Jersey , freshman Alan Bowman, to a punctured lung in the West Virginia game, which the Red Raiders still only lost by 8 points. The next week Kingsbury’s squad won in an upset over TCU behind backup sophomore QB Jett Duffey. Then, after Bowman returned, he was re-injured before half-time of the Oklahoma game with Texas Tech leading 31-28 and Bowman leading the way on 21-26 passing for 227 yards and 2 TDs. That was it for Bowman. He was lost for the season and did not play in the last three games, all loses. The freshman passed for 227/327/ 2.638yards @ 69.4%/ 17 TDs to 7 ints.Despite a 5-7 record, Texas Tech had a +75 point differential: 448-373. They averaged 37.3 points per game...and their starting freshman QB missed 4 1鈦? games.What’s interesting about today’s high scoring offenses in the NFL is that all 4 teams that remain, the Patriots, Chiefs, Saints and Rams are ranked in the bottom half of the league in yards per play on defense: Rams-28th; Chiefs-24th; Patriots-20th and Saints-18th.When you look at the makeup of these 4 coaching staffs—-Patriots—-Bill Belichick HC (19 years) + Josh McDaniels OC (11 years) + Tom Brady QB (19 years)Chiefs—-Andy Reid HC (6 years) + Bob Sutton DC (6 years) + Patrick Mahomes QB (2 years)Saints—-Sean Payton HC (13 years) + Dennis Allen DC (4 years) + Drew Brees QB (13 years)Rams—-Sean McVay HC (2 years) + Wade Phillips DC (2 years) + Jared Goff (3 years)The impressive continuity of the veteran trios in New England and New Orleans jump out.The continuity in Kansas City jumps out too—-especially seeing they have the #1 seed in the AFC with a 2nd year QB.The outlier here is Sean McVay in his 2nd year and winning with a 3rd year QB—-this is what gives hope to young coaches like Matt Nagy and Kliff Kingsbury who are working with young QBs.In essense, because head coaches are becoming more and more specialized, the defensive coordinators are like second head coaches. It helps that Wade Phillips and Dennis Allen have been head coaches—-Bob Sutton was the head coach at Army for 10 years and was an assistant head coach with the Jets. Where the pattern is flipped in New England, it helps that Josh McDaniels was once a head coach. These common denominators suggest that Kingsbury can be successful with a young QB if his offense is high scoring and his defense is well coached by a former head coach in Vance Joseph. It doesn’t matter so much that the former head coaches were not highly successful in that role (Phillips, Allen, McDaniels, Sutton and Joseph) Stitched Jordan Hicks Jersey , what matters is that they have the knowledge, the experience and the gravitas to hold up their end of the bargain.In Daniel L. Pink’s book, he links 6 senses to creative success:Creative Design—-at Texas Tech, Kingsbury was known for coming up with 3-4 new innovative plays a week. Remember the time when Kurt Warner and Todd Haley drew up the flea flicker to Larry Fitzgerald on the plane ride to Atlanta?Story—-which speaks to the kind of narrative that Kingsbury gives to his players, as in why these designs will work and why they will give the team a competitive advantage.Synthesis—-putting the details of the design into practice and executing them in games.Empathy—-Kingsbury, when asked about his 35-40 record at Texas Tech said he loved his players at Texas Tech. Anyone who has coached young men through losing seasons knows the effort and pain those players have battled through. Empathy is what drove Eagles’ HC Doug Pederson to hug WR Alshon Jeffery yesterday. Yes, the best coaches are not afraid to feel for their players and even admit when they make mistakes. Play—-the work environment is all the more exciting when coaches engage the players in team morale building exercises. Kingsbury is superb at this. Check out this video (especially the ending!):6. Meaning—-when coaches take the time and effort to get to know their players, it gives added meaning and enthusiasm to the team experience. Yes, Kingsbury was dubbed “Coach Bro’” at Texas A&M and it carried over to Texas Tech, but it’s more because of how young Kingsbury is. Players would never call BA “Coach Bro,’” but they are quick to call him “Cool Uncle.” Bill Parcells, when he was a young coach with Giants, was a “Coach Bro’”...so is Sean McVay...and so is any coach who believes in establishing a meaningful rapport with the players.When looking at Daniel L. Pink’s 6 senses of creative genius, they appear to be a fitting outline of Kliff Kingsbury’s coaching strengths—-that is—-as long as he remains unafraid of being himself. It’s very ok these days to be young—-and—-creative.(Thanks to Steve Herman for the video)