On the CBS pregame show yesterday their insider said 'league sources were surprised that FIVE YEAR extensions were given after ONE winning season.'
Ya think?!?
There is no context in this though.
Kliff took over the worst team in the league picking #1 overall. In the 3 seasons before he was extended he also only had 1 losing season. The team improved drastically every season and at the end of last season had a winning record and was the 4th best pro merger coach in Cardinals history.
I get if you look at the record of coaches talking over teams picking #1 there aren;t many that are much better than Kliffs after year 3. (I've just had a quick scan and the only recent ones I can see are Andy Reid who took over the Chiefs in '13 but they didn't draft a QB. He had a better record than Zac Taylor/Joe Burrow after 3 years. Better than Jim Schwartz with Stafford).
Contracts get done with a year left on them and while Kliff was by no means perfect I think if we are fair we can understand why Mike did what he did. We might not agree but if you go back to that point it's not too difficult to see why.
It's not really a mistake though. Mike can fire them both and not blink an eye. The money involved is peanuts in NFL terms. Mike burned $17m in guarantees to Josh Rosen then game $32m more of them to the shortest QB ever to play in the modern NFL with 1 year of college experience. He's not bothered about the money.
Look at Matt Rhule. The Panthers were on the hook for a massive sum and they already lost it off the books. Kliff would get another college job in no time and the money Keim earns is probably about the same as the annual jet fuel bill.
It's always a gamble but not really a mistake. Mike thought he would rather have them locked up rather than risk losing them at the end of the year and it didn't work out and he'll lose a bit of money. Can you imagine what fans would be saying if we went 13-4 this year and made the NFC title game and Kliff walked for nothing to the Bucs or Andy Reid has a heart attack (not unlikely) and he went to the Chiefs?
More concerning to me is Mike's ego.