{"id":662944,"date":"2026-01-08T04:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/662944\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T04:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:54:13","slug":"cardinals-named-least-desirable-head-coach-opening-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/662944\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals named least desirable head coach opening in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cardinals named least desirable head coach opening in 2026 <\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> are one of seven NFL teams currently searching for a new head coach.<\/p>\n

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The Tennessee Titans<\/a> and New York Giants<\/a> fired their coaches during the season, and then the Cardinals, Cleveland Browns<\/a>, Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, and Baltimore Ravens<\/a> all fired their coaches after Week 18.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t surprising to see the Cardinals move on from Jonathan Gannon. The coach took over in 2023 and compiled a 15-36 record with no playoff appearances. Now, the team will look to start over once again and hope to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n

Jacob Infante of PFSN recently ranked<\/a> the head coach openings from worst to best. Infante has the Cardinals as the least attractive opening, which may surprise some people.<\/p>\n

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Regarding the Cardinals, Infante offered the following:<\/p>\n

This may seem like a harsh ranking for the Arizona Cardinals, and there are valid reasons to be interested in this job. They went 8-9 just one season ago, so there is an indication they have plenty of talent on the roster. They are 2-8 in one-score games, so while they are losing a lot of games, they have enough ability to keep games competitive amid bad coaching.<\/p>\n

That said, it could be a tough road toward making the Cardinals one of the top teams in the NFL. For starters, their quarterback situation is a mess.\u00a0Kyler Murray<\/a>\u00a0figures to be on his way out this offseason, and with\u00a0little to no cap relief<\/a>\u00a0from releasing him, Arizona has to hope a team is desperate enough to take on his bad contract.<\/p>\n

As Infante mentioned, the Cardinals have played a lot of close games recently and could easily have had better records in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

However, the team has a huge question mark at the quarterback position, as it seems unlikely that Kyler Murray will return<\/a>. Additionally, the team isn’t in the best cap situation and isn’t exactly brimming with young talent.<\/p>\n

Murray’s fate may depend on who the next coach is. The former first-round pick only played in five games this season and ended with 962 passing yards, six touchdowns, and three interceptions. With a top pick in 2026, though, the Cardinals could be looking for a fresh start.<\/p>\n

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The only way the team can get not get financially crushed is by trading Murray before June 1. In that scenario, the team would take on just under $18 million in dead cap and free about $35 million against the cap.<\/p>\n

The major selling points for the Cardinals are some intriguing young players and a top draft pick to work with. Trey McBride is one of the best tight ends in the league already and Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson look like a solid receiver duo.<\/p>\n

On Infante’s list, though, every team ahead of the Cardinals either has a franchise quarterback already, multiple first round picks, or a ton of cap space. The Cardinals have none of those things, so it’s understandable to not consider it the best gig.<\/p>\n

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More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardinals named least desirable head coach opening in 2026 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,254,117,1327,54,7,34844,7062,4827,393,3374,11369,56,6,394,6042],"class_list":["post-662944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-cardinals","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-football","tag-jacob-infante","tag-jonathan-gannon","tag-kyler-murray","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-marvin-harrison-jr","tag-michael-wilson","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-trey-mcbride"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115857697295828014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}