{"id":725520,"date":"2026-02-03T05:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/725520\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T05:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:36:38","slug":"grading-cardinals-mike-lafleur-hire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/725520\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading Cardinals\u2019 Mike LaFleur Hire"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> put an end to their lengthy coaching search, hiring former Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur<\/a> to become the organization\u2019s 44th head coach.<\/p>\n

LaFleur, 38, is a disciple of both Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, and called plays to a certain degree of success during a brief stint as the New York Jets\u2019 offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

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Arizona was mostly shut out from the high-profile coaching candidates. They were also rejected by Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and newest Titans head coach Robert Saleh. Despite a thinned-out pool, the Cardinals were notably impressed by LaFleur.<\/p>\n

So how does this hire look, objectively speaking? I\u2019ll offer my own personal grade of the hire below, but first, we\u2019ll take a look at some of the national-level grades. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the NFL\u2019s national media offers a relatively polarized group of assessments. A relatively unknown (but still promising) hire could easily swing to an extreme \u2014 for better or worse.<\/p>\n

How National Media Grades Mike LaFleur Hire\"USATSI<\/p>\n

May 28, 2025; Woodland Hills, CA, USA; Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur watches during organized team activities at Rams Practice Facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Conor Orr \u2013 Sports Illustrated<\/a>: D+<\/p>\n

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Orr is highly skeptical of the fit, but emphasized his belief in LaFleur as an individual candidate. His criticism lies in the Cardinals\u2019 overall situation, which he posits is not the right place for a plug-and-play coordinator hire in a tough division, and was more suited to the likes of Raheem Morris or Vance Joseph.<\/p>\n

Ralph Vacciano \u2013 FOX Sports<\/a>: D-<\/p>\n

Vacciano appears to be of the belief that the Cardinals picked the wrong Rams coordinator, citing defensive coordinator Chris Shula. He pointed out the fact that LaFleur did not call plays in McVay\u2019s system, and also seems to think LaFleur\u2019s poor track record in New York is a significant knock.<\/p>\n

Tyler Sullivan \u2013 CBS Sports<\/a>: C<\/p>\n

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Sullivan is more open to the hire than some of the above grades, but pointed out the unfortunate similarities between the Cardinals\u2019 and Jets\u2019 QB situations while LaFleur was tenured in New York. While Jacoby Brissett might still be better than Zach Wilson, LaFleur\u2019s offense did struggle with QB output, and Arizona might not offer a better outlook.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Solak \u2013 ESPN<\/a>: B-<\/p>\n

Solak calls the hire \u201crun-of-the-mill,\u201d and believes the Cardinals would have preferred Klint Kubiak. He\u2019s a bit more on board with LaFleur than some others, and thinks he comes with a \u201csolid\u201d ceiling.<\/p>\n

Christian D\u2019Andrea & Cory Woodroof \u2013 USA Today<\/a>: B<\/p>\n

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D\u2019Andrea and Woodruff offer a bit of optimism, but point out the Kyler Murray dilemma as an X-factor. Still, they seem to believe LaFleur\u2019s history alongside some of the NFL world\u2019s elites offer him a solid chance to make an impact, though he may not be cut out to man the helm of a team.<\/p>\n

NFL Staff \u2013 Bleacher Report<\/a>: A-<\/p>\n

Bleacher Report\u2019s NFL staff is bullish on the LaFleur hire, rounding out an extremely diverse group of grades. They call LaFleur a \u201cbright offensive mind,\u201d and think, even with a significant talent deficit between the Rams and Cardinals, that the 38-year-old head coach could easily engineer an offensive turnaround in Arizona.<\/p>\n

Mike LaFleur hire: My Grade\"Arizona<\/p>\n

May 28, 2025; Woodland Hills, CA, USA; Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur watches during organized team activities at Rams Practice Facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

My grade: B<\/p>\n

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To call this hire a failure and offer it a grade in the D range gives far too much credence to the Cardinals\u2019 track record of failure. At the same time, to dub it a home run would be nothing more than unabashed homerism. Graded on the curve of candidates who were ever truly realistic for Arizona to land (and therefore subtracting the Harbaugh, McDermott, McCarthy-type candidates), this hire could elevate close to an A, but in terms of true fit and objective pros and cons, it lands somewhere between average and elite.<\/p>\n

Using the Jets years as an argument against LaFleur\u2019s ability as a play-caller is shortsighted. New York\u2019s offense was more creative and fundamentally sound under LaFleur than in the years preceding and following his tenure.<\/p>\n

The concern boils down to LaFleur being a relative unknown, which is extremely valid, but it\u2019s also difficult to imagine a young coach who has trained under McVay and Shanahan would be completely incapable of running an offense himself. One does not simply land a coordinator job under McVay immediately after being fired without something tangible to offer.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, LaFleur brings a semblance of hope that playmakers like Trey McBride, Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. won\u2019t be stifled. In fact \u2014 contrary to Orr\u2019s argument \u2014 I\u2019d go as far as to say the talent level is very close to being the exact situation that would warrant simply plugging in a dose of offensive innovation.<\/p>\n

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The lack of a clear plan at QB could ultimately be the factor that sinks the hire into a long list of failed Cardinals experiments, however, so putting the right man under center early in LaFleur\u2019s tenure is of crucial importance. There\u2019s also no telling how a coach will truly gel with his players in terms of leadership and culture; that will have to be revealed with time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more substance to LaFleur than hypotheticals and potential, but there is still notable risk in going for an unproven head coach in a division of juggernauts and masterminds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals put an end to their lengthy coaching search, hiring former Los Angeles Rams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,682,1327,7,7523,8357,2812,4827,58,9737,3374,11369,26287,255,6,12611,4266,44386,3307,6042,23662,1733],"class_list":{"0":"post-725520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jacoby-brissett","15":"tag-klint-kubiak","16":"tag-kyle-shanahan","17":"tag-kyler-murray","18":"tag-los-angeles-rams","19":"tag-mandatory-credit","20":"tag-marvin-harrison-jr","21":"tag-michael-wilson","22":"tag-mike-lafleur","23":"tag-new-york-jets","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-offensive-coordinator","26":"tag-organized-team-activities","27":"tag-rams-practice-facility","28":"tag-sean-mcvay","29":"tag-trey-mcbride","30":"tag-woodland-hills","31":"tag-zach-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116005085021973973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725520","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=725520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}