The Arizona Cardinals seem pleased with their hiring of Mike LaFleur as their new head coach. There is a lot to like about him. He worked with Sean McVay on the Los Angeles Rams. His older brother, Matt LaFleur, has been a successful head coach for the Green Bay Packers.
However, his hiring does not get much love when compared to other new head coach hirings in the NFL.
Advertisement
The Athletic polled a panel of nine coaches and executives to rank their top-five head-coaching hires of the cycle, none of whom were employed by the 10 teams who hired new head coaches.
Two coaches ranked at the bottom, getting zero votes in the top five — LaFleur and new Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken.
There’s just too much unknown with Monken, LaFleur and their respective organizations. Both are first-time, offensive-minded NFL head coaches coming from successful teams, and they’re joining two franchises that are perpetually rebuilding.
Without enough of a track record for the coaches and the organizations’ instability, it’s understandable why our panel took a wait-and-see approach with these hires.
It seems to say more about the Cardinals and the Browns as organizations than the guys who were hired.
It was just three years ago when the Cardinals hired a hotshot coordinator from a contending team with no head-coaching experience. That, of course, was Jonathan Gannon, who led the Cardinals through two seasons that met or exceeded expectations, but then the disaster of 2025 came and he was fired.
Advertisement
One could love the hiring of LaFleur and question whether he will have success. They have a mess at quarterback between Kyler Murray, whom the organization seems to want to get rid of, Jacoby Brissett, who can’t win games, and no shot at a top quarterback prospect in the draft.
They have cap space, but not a crazy amount, and they have a lot of holes to fill on the roster.
They also don’t have a defensive coordinator yet, so there’s that.
Plus, with John Harbaugh getting hired and other coaches landing in nice situations, it is understandable why people around the league would not think LaFleur was a top-five hiring.
Advertisement
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Mike LaFleur given low ranking among new coaching hires