NFL Black Monday has come and gone, leaving seven teams looking for their next head coach.
When the Arizona Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon on Monday, they joined two other teams who canned their head coach on Black Monday. The Las Vegas Raiders fired Pete Carroll, and Cleveland Browns fired Kevin Stefanski on Monday, while the Atlanta Falcons let go of Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot the night before.
John Harbaugh was fired from the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday after an 18-year run, and the Tennessee Titans and New York Giants made coaching changes during the season.
Add it all up and there are currently seven NFL teams looking for new head coaches. Could that change following the Wild Card Round in the playoffs? Maybe. Which teams lose and how they lose could impact any potential future head coach openings.
With six other teams looking for their next head coach, where do the Cardinals fit in? According to one prominent sports media figure, they are not in a good spot.
Colin Cowherd Says Arizona Cardinals are One of the Worst Jobs Available
Arizona’s head coaching availability is not getting any extra hype from the national media. And if we are being honest, it shouldn’t.
On Wednesday’s episode of ‘The Herd with Colin Cowherd’, Cowherd put all seven of the NFL head coaching openings in three different categories.
The Cardinals did not rank highly. Arizona was tied for last with Tennessee and Cleveland in the ‘Punt’ category.
You can be mad at Cowherd for where he ranked the Cardinals, but if you’re a Cardinals fan, you probably feel the same way.
Arizona has not had a winning season in four years. Once the Bruce Arians era ended, it has been dark times in the desert. Any reasonable observer can see why the Cardinals are in the same company as the Titans and Browns. It is kind of odd that he did not include the Raiders in that category.
Cowherd began describing the ‘Punt’ category by saying, “I wouldn’t take those jobs.”
Now, it’s easy for a multimillionaire in Cowherd to say he would not take an NFL head coaching job, but his point makes sense. Arizona, Tennessee, and Cleveland are not ideal places for success as an NFL head coach.
Cowherd ranked Baltimore as the top opening in the ‘(Almost) Perfect’ category, and Atlanta, Las Vegas, and New York in the ‘Promising’ category.
Why Does Cowherd Have the Cardinals so Low?
It is easy for any sports talking head to throw out generalities about why the Cardinals are a bad job. Arizona’s recent record and overall vibes make it obvious.
But specifically makes the Cardinals head coaching job so undesirable?
Here’s what Cowherd said:
“Arizona has some cap space, but you’ve got to play (Sean) McVay twice a year, Mike Macdonald twice a year, (Kyle) Shanahan twice a year,” Cowherd said Wednesday. “Yeah, good luck with that, and you don’t have a quarterback.”
It is hard to argue any of that!
The three other head coaches of Arizona’s NFC West foes add to the difficulty of this job. You could make the same argument for the Raiders as well. It is just way harder to turn around an NFL team when the divisional competition leaves so little room for error.
The three other teams in the NFC West finished with the three best records in the NFC. That level of dominance won’t continue like that each year, but they won’t fall off a cliff either.
Oh, and the Cardinals do not appear to have a legitimate starting quarterback entering the 2026 season. And the upcoming NFL Draft does not have many clear QB options.
Other than that, everything is fine.