General Chaos
Gronko = Man Beast
Whispers:
Jan. 15, 2007
While we hear QB Matt Leinart, WR Anquan Boldin, SS Adrian Wilson, QB Kurt Warner and DT Darnell Dockett were all involved in varying degrees in the interview process to hire the team’s new head coach, one player who was conspicuous by his absence was DE Bertrand Berry, a player who previously carried considerable weight in the Cardinals’ locker room. Word is Berry’s influence doesn’t appear to be nearly as great following two straight seasons that were significantly shortened by injuries. At the same time, while Wilson’s status around the league has grown to Pro Bowl proportions, so has his role on the Cardinals as one of the team’s bona fide leaders both on and off the field. Earlier in his career, when the Cardinals didn’t play well, Wilson could be very standoffish, but he has become a lot more responsive to the media in both good times and bad.
Just when it appeared the Cardinals’ search for a new head coach had entered a holding pattern that would linger at least a few days beyond the NFL’s divisional playoff weekend, it turned out that the two days the team spent interviewing Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt for the job late last week were almost too good to be true.
The way we hear it, Whisenhunt fit the description of the ”prototype” Cardinals candidate to a T. When the Steelers dragged their feet in filling their head-coaching vacancy, and after Whisenhunt had lost out to Bobby Petrino for a Falcons job that the Atlanta native and Georgia Tech grad might have preferred, the Arizona brain trust decided to seize what seemed like a very enticing opportunity for a coach who it believes could be another Sean Payton in the making.
“For starters, he’s a terrific fit with the personnel they have,” a team insider told PFW a few hours after the news of Whisenhunt’s hiring broke in the desert Sunday morning. “In addition, they wanted a candidate who came from a good organization, was preferably young and someone who was very creative offensively. Whisenhunt fills all of those qualifications perfectly. It really looks like a good situation.”
Team sources indicated another feather in Whisenhunt’s cap was his apparent willingness, at this writing, to retain defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, whom the Cardinals still consider a valued employee. We’re told the Pendergast factor, as well as other philosophical differences on the makeup of their potential staffs, might have been the biggest strikes against two other candidates previously considered to have strong support within the organization — Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who was believed to be V.P. of football operations Rod Graves’ favored choice, and Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who was being heavily touted by Cardinals QB Matt Leinart after the rookie had played under Chow at USC.
Jan. 15, 2007
While we hear QB Matt Leinart, WR Anquan Boldin, SS Adrian Wilson, QB Kurt Warner and DT Darnell Dockett were all involved in varying degrees in the interview process to hire the team’s new head coach, one player who was conspicuous by his absence was DE Bertrand Berry, a player who previously carried considerable weight in the Cardinals’ locker room. Word is Berry’s influence doesn’t appear to be nearly as great following two straight seasons that were significantly shortened by injuries. At the same time, while Wilson’s status around the league has grown to Pro Bowl proportions, so has his role on the Cardinals as one of the team’s bona fide leaders both on and off the field. Earlier in his career, when the Cardinals didn’t play well, Wilson could be very standoffish, but he has become a lot more responsive to the media in both good times and bad.
Just when it appeared the Cardinals’ search for a new head coach had entered a holding pattern that would linger at least a few days beyond the NFL’s divisional playoff weekend, it turned out that the two days the team spent interviewing Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt for the job late last week were almost too good to be true.
The way we hear it, Whisenhunt fit the description of the ”prototype” Cardinals candidate to a T. When the Steelers dragged their feet in filling their head-coaching vacancy, and after Whisenhunt had lost out to Bobby Petrino for a Falcons job that the Atlanta native and Georgia Tech grad might have preferred, the Arizona brain trust decided to seize what seemed like a very enticing opportunity for a coach who it believes could be another Sean Payton in the making.
“For starters, he’s a terrific fit with the personnel they have,” a team insider told PFW a few hours after the news of Whisenhunt’s hiring broke in the desert Sunday morning. “In addition, they wanted a candidate who came from a good organization, was preferably young and someone who was very creative offensively. Whisenhunt fills all of those qualifications perfectly. It really looks like a good situation.”
Team sources indicated another feather in Whisenhunt’s cap was his apparent willingness, at this writing, to retain defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, whom the Cardinals still consider a valued employee. We’re told the Pendergast factor, as well as other philosophical differences on the makeup of their potential staffs, might have been the biggest strikes against two other candidates previously considered to have strong support within the organization — Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who was believed to be V.P. of football operations Rod Graves’ favored choice, and Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who was being heavily touted by Cardinals QB Matt Leinart after the rookie had played under Chow at USC.
