At what point did you guys realize Wilks was unfit to coach?

[TJ]

I haven't sold all of my stock on Wilks. I'm not 100% convinced he's the main reason this team is struggling, even though he's the HC. I think there are (were) two profound issues with the team and that were Bradford and McCoy's play calling. One of them was already fixed. The other will be cleaned soon, hopefully.

I still appreciate Wilks' demeanor and want to see him succeed.

 

[New Mexico]

I had a bad feeling when I first heard him speak. He just didn't sound very smart or personable. I didn't have a lot of confidence in him to game plan or make necessary in-game adjustments. Then I read about how he wants a conservative offense, and imagined an unimaginative, boring offense which seems to be his preference. Hoping his philosophy changes if Rosen continues to deal and with the avalanche of criticism directed his and McCoy's way. We'll see. Unfortunately, I think we're stuck with him for the rest of the year and probably next year too.

 

[CHAPTER 7]

I had a bad feeling when I first heard him speak. He just didn't sound very smart or personable.

I didn't know about him until Gambo was talking highly of him on the radio. I though he said he commands the room, etc. Basically hellava leader. But he really didn't impress me either when he got introduced to the media as HC.

 

[TheCardFan]

Way too early to judge a person/coach.

I admit that 0-4 sucks and its concerning but consider the following:

Defense - We have at least 6 players that wouldn't be starting on another team. Mayowa (Golden isn't 100%), Bynes, Hodges, Bucannon, Benwikiree, Bethea, and Boston. How many of these guys were street free agents or on 1 year deals with limited options?

Offense - how would you rate our Oline? Wr's? TE's? Pretty bad. Again, multiple players that wouldn't be starting for other NFL teams.

We also completely changed the offense (no risk it no biscuit to ground and pound) and defense (3-4 to 4-3).

I don't know how this is going to end up but 4 games in with all of the above information is a bit early to blow up Wilks.

I believe Wilks is still the same coach that we all thought we were getting..leader of men and a defensive minded coach.

What I don't know is...is he over matched from a game plan perspective or do we not have the talent.

The bottom line is we don't know if the guy can overcome the challenges above and if he can win consistently but he needs more than 4 games to prove it.

 

[kerouac9]

Way too early to judge a person/coach.

I admit that 0-4 sucks and its concerning but consider the following:

Defense - We have at least 6 players that wouldn't be starting on another team. Mayowa (Golden isn't 100%), Bynes, Hodges, Bucannon, Benwikiree, Bethea, and Boston. How many of these guys were street free agents or on 1 year deals with limited options?

Offense - how would you rate our Oline? Wr's? TE's? Pretty bad. Again, multiple players that wouldn't be starting for other NFL teams.

We also completely changed the offense (no risk it no biscuit to ground and pound) and defense (3-4 to 4-3).

I don't know how this is going to end up but 4 games in with all of the above information is a bit early to blow up Wilks.

I believe Wilks is still the same coach that we all thought we were getting..leader of men and a defensive minded coach.

What I don't know is...is he over matched from a game plan perspective or do we not have the talent.

The bottom line is we don't know if the guy can overcome the challenges above and if he can win consistently but he needs more than 4 games to prove it.

He hasn't shown that he can win at all. The last two games he's basically played not to lose, but did anyway.

I think all 5 of our OL would find jobs on other teams, and 3-4 of them would be starting on many.

Isn't making the strategic shift and having it fail an indication that the coach might be bad?

 

[Arz101]

If Cards PR team is reading this thread, stop Wilks from re-answering questions. I see that he puts his foot in mouth trying to make the answers sincere.
For example, Wilks today answered that last week's 3rd & 2 influenced yesterday's 2 minute calls. This is cringe worthy.

 

[TheCardFan]

He hasn't shown that he can win at all. The last two games he's basically played not to lose, but did anyway.

I think all 5 of our OL would find jobs on other teams, and 3-4 of them would be starting on many.

Isn't making the strategic shift and having it fail an indication that the coach might be bad?

I appreciate your pragmatic approach. You probably error a bit on the skeptical side and I am probably a bit too optimistic.

The proof is in the pudding as they say and its hard to argue the results.

I would say yes. The strategy and execution are on him.

The variable is the lack of talent and the unknown is how much of this is ineptitude vs execution.

 

[WildBB]

I haven't sold all of my stock on Wilks. I'm not 100% convinced he's the main reason this team is struggling, even though he's the HC. I think there are (were) two profound issues with the team and that were Bradford and McCoy's play calling. One of them was already fixed. The other will be cleaned soon, hopefully.

I still appreciate Wilks' demeanor and want to see him succeed.

He just has to understand, what worked so well in Carolina, doesn't necessarily translate to here. Not right off anyway. He's now got a young gun slinger and a weapon he needs to unleash still (DJ).

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

He hasn't shown that he can win at all. The last two games he's basically played not to lose, but did anyway.

I think all 5 of our OL would find jobs on other teams, and 3-4 of them would be starting on many.

Isn't making the strategic shift and having it fail an indication that the coach might be bad?

Amen. I swear some of you would defend anyone cardinals-related if they were strangling your mother (“well maybe she did something to deserve it . . .)

 

[Cheesebeef]

Amen. I swear some of you would defend anyone cardinals-related if they were strangling your mother (“well maybe she did something to deserve it . . .)

well... a huge portion of them already did that to Darryl Washington's baby mama who he choked and threw to the ground breaking her collarbone.

Hell... someone kept defending him even AFTER he pled guilty... and even AFTER he showed how completely worthless he was doing nothing to get back in the league.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

His sideline demeanor screams deer in headlights and that theory is absolutely proven by how manages the game.

Had we known we would be drafting Rosen there's a less than zero chance Wilks would have been hired so my guess is we pull the plus after 4-12/3-13 and put the kid in the best position to win.

 

[TheCardFan]

His sideline demeanor screams deer in headlights and that theory is absolutely proven by how manages the game.

Had we known we would be drafting Rosen there's a less than zero chance Wilks would have been hired so my guess is we pull the plus after 4-12/3-13 and put the kid in the best position to win.

I disagree on sideline demeanor but at the end of the day...that doesn't win games either way.

 

[Timm Rosenbach]

He is going to melt down under this pressure. Now that people are watching because we have an exciting rookie QB, the pressure intensifies. Wilks can’t handle a single critical question. He will be facing hundreds over the next 13 weeks

 

[AZ Shocker]

As a defensive coordinator I would have expected a better defense. Yes this last Seahawk game we were waaaaay better (like ridiculously better) on third downs... but damn...every other down our linemen are getting completely manhandled.

I'll give Wilks a small degree of credit for emphasizing each week in practice what we need to work on from the last game....but whatever "system" he believes in and envisions and wants to coach up is not really working in today's NFL to totality just yet.

Maybe he's ahead of his time....but I don't like it.

 

[outcent13]

For me it was when he called their last timeout of the first half after a failed 3rd down play to make sure the other team had 38 seconds to do something "alright".

Not sure why he says that every other word.

But I will say that I think the defense can be really good if we had a solid linebacking crew .

 

[conraddobler]

The crux of the matter is that in term of Wilks he's a new HC so he's going to make mistakes, a lot of them, that's normal and of course we could of gotten lucky and got the one HC who had very little learning curve but typically that's not how it works.

The NFL is goofy this way, they promote people to being a HC without much training on the actual job. Sure they can watch their own HC's for examples but even that isn't really much because that's like riding in a car to a place 25 times then trying to drive there yourself.

It helps but it's not as good as driving the car just one time.

Running the ball 3 times where he did is actually the old school way to play that. It's clock management to a degree but it didn't run off enough time and it didn't get us a FG but it should have.

The worst outcome that should of occured is OT at home, which is not a bad idea at all.

It wasn't that terrible of a decision but the kicker missed the FG, not much you can do about that except cut the kicker.

I wouldn't give up on the guy this early, the defense is starting to play better and that's a good sign, with Rosen building an elite defense and band aiding an offense together is a great way to win a lot of SB's.

You can change out OC's, even the GM might want to keep him and just tweak a few things. But playing that old school wasn't that bad an idea that's pretty text book stuff there it's not flashy or fun to watch but it will win more games than not over time and to be honest when teams cross over to greatness that's how they play that, the flash in the pan teams that can't step on necks play it the risky way. I know this won't be a popular opinion but that's fine people can disagree on this there is more than one way to win.

 

[Crimson Warrior]

His sideline demeanor screams deer in headlights and that theory is absolutely proven by how manages the game.

Had we known we would be drafting Rosen there's a less than zero chance Wilks would have been hired so my guess is we pull the plus after 4-12/3-13 and put the kid in the best position to win.

MaoTosiFanClub sighting everybody!

Now we just need KrangtheBrain, JefftheShark and Section 11 back on board, and we'll be ready to roll.

Was Mao Tosi the cardinal D-line man that looked like an eighth-grader as he tried to get around the Cowboys '90s mammoth guard, Larry Allen?

 

[Crimson Warrior]

The crux of the matter is that in term of Wilks he's a new HC so he's going to make mistakes, a lot of them, that's normal and of course we could of gotten lucky and got the one HC who had very little learning curve but typically that's not how it works.

The NFL is goofy this way, they promote people to being a HC without much training on the actual job. Sure they can watch their own HC's for examples but even that isn't really much because that's like riding in a car to a place 25 times then trying to drive there yourself.

It helps but it's not as good as driving the car just one time.

Running the ball 3 times where he did is actually the old school way to play that. It's clock management to a degree but it didn't run off enough time and it didn't get us a FG but it should have.

The worst outcome that should of occured is OT at home, which is not a bad idea at all.

It wasn't that terrible of a decision but the kicker missed the FG, not much you can do about that except cut the kicker.

I wouldn't give up on the guy this early, the defense is starting to play better and that's a good sign, with Rosen building an elite defense and band aiding an offense together is a great way to win a lot of SB's.

You can change out OC's, even the GM might want to keep him and just tweak a few things. But playing that old school wasn't that bad an idea that's pretty text book stuff there it's not flashy or fun to watch but it will win more games than not over time and to be honest when teams cross over to greatness that's how they play that, the flash in the pan teams that can't step on necks play it the risky way. I know this won't be a popular opinion but that's fine people can disagree on this there is more than one way to win.

That's a good post sir.

Wilkes might not be the answer, and at this point it looks like he isn't, but for god's sake, at least give the man 16 games. Give him a fair chance.

If, at the end of 16 games, it's clear he's not capable, then during the off-season, you make an orderly transition.

Anything more drastic than that is clown shoes. Big time.

But of course, what do I know? I said to keep Rosen on the bench until at the least the bye.

 

[gimpy]

I can't believe that the Cards D had the Seahawks "0 for" on third down attempts.
Seems like in the past, we always gave up the big third down play.

All the naysayers on here have been pulling me down with them, but this last game has given me a ray of hope, even for the coaches. The play of Rosen and the offense has given me some hope and our defense improves a little more? I'm definitely looking forward to a winnable game this next week. Especially against the hated 'niners.
Go Cards!

 

[Gandhi]

I so want these guys gone too. But I don't know if M.Bidwill can do it. I am not sure how much $ he will lose by letting these idiots go. I just can't believe this is happening...

Money has nothing to do with it, and he most certainly could afford it if he wanted to. Not only is he extremely rich by himself, but the organization is very wealthy as well.

The main reason why he won’t fire Wilks is that he knows the value of patience and continuity. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but it is beyond me how anyone can know this soon – and without being around Wilks or any of the other coaches or front office guys occasionally, let alone every day – that they are incapable of doing their job. I too am very frustrated with the start of the season, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t fathom how throwing in the towel after nine months and four games are magically going to turn the situation around. Maybe they will move on from Wilks before next season, but right now he will deservedly get his chance to righting the ship.

I can assure everyone that Michael Bidwill did not become as successful as he is by making decisions based on emotions.

 

[kerouac9]

Money has nothing to do with it, and he most certainly could afford it if he wanted to. Not only is he extremely rich by himself, but the organization is very wealthy as well.

The main reason why he won’t fire Wilks is that he knows the value of patience and continuity. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but it is beyond me how anyone can know this soon – and without being around Wilks or any of the other coaches or front office guys occasionally, let alone every day – that they are incapable of doing their job. I too am very frustrated with the start of the season, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t fathom how throwing in the towel after nine months and four games are magically going to turn the situation around. Maybe they will move on from Wilks before next season, but right now he will deservedly get his chance to righting the ship.

I can assure everyone that Michael Bidwill did not become as successful as he is by making decisions based on emotions.

He became as successful as he is be inheriting a professional football team and letting the rising tide of the NFL lift his particular boat. Let's not get carried away here.

I agree that you can't fire Wilks right now, but come January you have to confront the opportunity cost of going in with a staff that (1) thought the team was good enough to compete (if this is what the message was internally) and (2) still managed to lose 10-14 games. Those are separate problems.

We still need more information. If this team still is alternating between blowouts and close losses, it's a problem. If we revert to the mean and finish 2-4 in close games and get blown out in the rest, that's the toughest decision you have to make.

Can you afford to waste another year in the primes of David Johnson, Chandler Jones and Patrick Peterson?

 

[ARZCardinals]

I'm still holding out hope...it's still early to cut bait with Wilks. Even PP thinks he's got 'it'...and he knows he's not getting any younger.
I give him to week 10. If the ship isn't facing in the right direction....sink it.

Wilks has been overwhelmed at being a first time HC. He's learning on the job...which isn't good for the team.
Not pushing on the 3rd and 6 at the end of the game was dumb for any HC....own the game.
Calling a time out then Punting in the previous game before the half and leaving 39+ seconds for the other team to work with....beyond dumb
failure to call time outs in previous games when Sam and Co were going to take delay of game penalties.
Defense running blitz to one side and the offense ALWAYS knowing what they are doing and go the other way.

I'm praying he can figure it out...and he's gotten better, but he needs to get it RIGHT.

 

[kerouac9]

I'm still holding out hope...it's still early to cut bait with Wilks. Even PP thinks he's got 'it'...and he knows he's not getting any younger.
I give him to week 10. If the ship isn't facing in the right direction....sink it.

Do we still know this is true? Peterson thought the same thing about Brandon Williams.

 

[Gandhi]

He became as successful as he is be inheriting a professional football team and letting the rising tide of the NFL lift his particular boat. Let's not get carried away here.

I don’t think anyone is getting carried away, but I think you might be underestimating him a bit. He graduated Columbus school of law and became a federal prosecutor. He has won numerous awards for his work in the society and in business. He was, as you know, the driving force behind building the stadium, and he is the main reason (or at least responsible) that it has officially been sold out about 130 times. Now, if you only thought of his success as being the leader of an NFL team, then you are certainly right.

I agree that you can't fire Wilks right now, but come January you have to confront the opportunity cost of going in with a staff that (1) thought the team was good enough to compete (if this is what the message was internally) and (2) still managed to lose 10-14 games. Those are separate problems.

I agree, but business decisions and sports decisions are not the same things either. The smart business decision would probably be to not accept either scenarios and let go of the coaching staff. I simply don’t know what the wise sports decision would be. I guess you could argue either way. I looked at what Michael Bidwill said at the news conference where he announced that Whisenhunt and Graves had been let go, and to me two of the quotes sounds like they could be very relevant come January or February.

"It came down to wins and losses and the direction I felt like the team was going," Bidwill said. "...It was a decision that I made over the last several weeks and came to a final decision last night."

"When you look at the other teams in the NFC West, they were making dramatic improvements, especially the 49ers and the Seahawks," he said, "so I felt like we've got to get back to where we're competing at the highest level to win the NFC West."

Now, the Rams will probably get into cap problems in either 2019 or 2020, and whether they are able to sustain their current run remains to be seen, but the Niners has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and fascinating head coaches in the league, and it looks like they have their franchise quarterback for many years to come. The Seahawks still have Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin on offense, and they have begun building a strong defense again as well as already having great players like Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and, for the moment, Earl Thomas back next season.

Can you afford to waste another year in the primes of David Johnson, Chandler Jones and Patrick Peterson?

Well, you don’t really have a choice, I guess? They are obviously not trying to waste those players’ prime years, and really, it’s probably more like they hope that those players can help the team reach a higher level. I mean, it’s not like they lose the games on purpose, and whatever happens to those players and their prime years is only a side effect. If you had the choice, obviously no one would waste their abilities.

 

[football karma]

where Mike B deserves credit:

he took a franchise that was a bottom 3 franchise and made it a solid "middle class" respectable franchise. I think changing the whole feel of an org is harder than it looks.

this offseason:

interesting to see here. Many teams starting a rookie QB take their lumps, so it would seem unfair to a new coach to let them go after starting a rookie QB for 13 games.

This could be different though: Josh Rosen wasn't the reason they lost Sunday. It was everyone else, including coaching. Cards just finished two very winnable games with a coaching staff making some curious decisions at crunch time. Its not a good look.

Finally -- when Wilks was hired they had no idea they would have a young QB on board. So -- I would think the model of pairing a young franchise QB with an innovative offensive mind would be attractive. to get that, I think you have to turn over the coaching staff.