Mike LaFleur’s staff rumors and hiring updates….

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

A few guesses. He got a lot out of Fryar. It’s a big adjustment to the speed/power lines blockers face in the NFL. He should learn from the adjustment. He sent some pretty successful guys to the NFL. He didn’t have much to work with in AZ. Hernandez didn’t look like himself post injury. Brown obviously had a major personal issue. Froholdt wasn’t good enough to compensate for the G deficiencies. Williams was done. Worth taking one more look.

I appreciate you attempting to answer the question, Harry. Considering that was essentially the same line that was terrific the previous season, it also seems like grasping at air.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Yeah I do. Gannon is gone and Rallis is still here.

How many defensive HCs do you know that don't have a heavily influence, if not full control, of a defensive scheme. Gannon didn't call plays, but it was his scheme, his philosophy, and he was heavily involved in the game plan, as all HCs are.

So we hired a guy who doesn’t have his own scheme, his own philosophy, and had the head coach heavily involved in the game plan. So why would you hire that guy? You’re essentially saying he has no resume of his own.

 

[jf-08]

So we hired a guy who doesn’t have his own scheme, his own philosophy, and had the head coach heavily in lived in the game plan. So why would you hire that guy? You’re essentially saying he has no resume of his own.

Awesome!! So the other teams have no idea what type of defense we're gunna throw at them! We're playing 4-D Chutes and Ladders here!

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[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Yeah, there's a difference between calling the plays in the game, and the scheme that they run and the game plan that they set up.

You think a defensive HC is going to let Rallis run anything other than a defense set up with his principles?

So again, they hired a guy who has zero resume. That’s your argument. Even if he voiced a philosophy other than the one of his head coach and the guy who he was linebackers coach under as philly’s DC (so yeah totally believable he would do something other than his mentor - I mean, why do we even talk about coaching trees, right?), there’s zero evidence that it works. He has no tape of his philosophy if you’re right. There’s no proof point.

Here’s the reality, either rallis:

1) was responsible for the defense that sucked; or
2) the Cardinals hired him based solely on what he told them he would do differently than anything he’s done.

Those are both bad hires.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

It really didn't.

What you said was that the website didn’t reflect who was employed by the team in regards to rallis. A) he was still employed (under contract) and B) remained employed. So yeah, it literally was wrong and aged poorly.

 

[slanidrac16]

Two of them were necessary to satisfy the Rooney rule. A third reportedly turned down more pay and the opportunity to call plays, to take a job with the Titans instead.

For the record... I would've been happier if the Cards had hired any of them over keeping Rallis.

But Rallis was in place. The job was filled. There was no need to interview anybody for the DC job. We’re just dumb.

 

[PACardsFan]

It would appear that LaFleur just flat out liked Rallis more than the other candidates they interviewed.

 

[pemory09]

But Rallis was in place. The job was filled. There was no need to interview anybody for the DC job. We’re just dumb.

But wait, there’s more: as an added bonus we’re also cheap!

 

[pemory09]

According to Cards Wire - one reason Rallis was retained because he was the only DC candidate with play calling experience.

Why the Arizona Cardinals brought back DC Nick Rallis

Nick Rallis is once again the Cardinals' defensive coordinator. There was one major factor as to why.

cardswire.usatoday.com

And sadly, it’s BAD play-calling experience….

 

[Vacard]

I remember when BA was hired that he wanted to let Horton go (despite his defense being really good) and bring his own DC because he explicitly did not want the team to bond over someone left over from the previous regime. He didnt want a split locker room. I also remember when ASFN heavily scrutinized Bowles. Well the rest his history. No, keeping coaches from the last regime is not a good idea. I think all the DC’s he wanted didnt want to come here. Rallis was the last resort. That says something.

 

[Solar7]

For anyone all that mad about retaining Rallis, the Raiders are retaining their Run Game Coordinator/D-Line Coach and promoting him to Defensive Coordinator. He was hired by Josh McDaniels... meaning they're running it back on a guy who is with his fourth HC on the team now. In my eyes, that's much worse than running it back with Rallis.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

For anyone all that mad about retaining Rallis, the Raiders are retaining their Run Game Coordinator/D-Line Coach and promoting him to Defensive Coordinator. He was hired by Josh McDaniels... meaning they're running it back on a guy who is with his fourth HC on the team now. In my eyes, that's much worse than running it back with Rallis.

So you are saying it could be worse

I get it, but it doesn't excuse this FO for bringing back a guy who totally failed last year and the defense quit on him

We needed a fresh voice in the locker room so ML could set the tone

This is a really bad look for the FO

Many of us fans are disappointed as the Cards continue to go down the same rabbit hole time and again

 

[GeorgiaCard88]

Yeah I do. Gannon is gone and Rallis is still here.

How many defensive HCs do you know that don't have a heavily influence, if not full control, of a defensive scheme. Gannon didn't call plays, but it was his scheme, his philosophy, and he was heavily involved in the game plan, as all HCs are.

Brit you are optimistic about this new regime and keeping rallis which is great and often lacking on this board.

I think the reason a lot of us are negative on keeping rallis and biggest questions on him going forward are:

-the defense flat out gave up on him last year with blow out after blow out- how is rallis going to change that heading into 2026?

-the scheme of 2025 was clearly flawed, are we supposed to take some hopium and believe that rallis was being held back by JG? A good DC will adapt- but we are taking a serious leap of faith that rallis can do it

-In 3 years- which rookie has rallis developed that is ascending? Drob- average play at best but good arguments he was a bust, Melton- descending by the end of 2025, Johnson- got worse as the year continued. The list could go on - but we have serious 1st-3rd round capital draft picks who are not only not performing but seem to be getting worse. I was hopeful that we were going to bring in a new face and try to salvage this talent because I’m negative on rallis’s ability to do so.

-Lack of assistant coordinators around him- who is rallis going to hire around him now that all his assistants have left? I have my doubts that he has enough experience in the league to have developed the connections to build a competent staff- especially this late in the game.

I know I’m being a hater - but give me your thoughts on the above and what you are seeing that gives you optimism on these points.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

Did any of the finalists, the last 2-3 candidates, get hired by other teams? Did they even get a lot of interviews?

 

[football karma]

this entire coaching search --HC and coordinators -- seems to have been run with the goal of signaling to everyone that "we got our second choice!"

 

[QuebecCard]

Did any of the finalists, the last 2-3 candidates, get hired by other teams? Did they even get a lot of interviews?

All went back to their existing home, it would seem.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

All went back to their existing home, it would seem.

Ah, so I guess they were all really hot commodities we're fretting about. Another reason why I call BS when someone says the dudes from LA/Seattle turned them down. There were 10 openings...even if Cards were the worst opening, the other 9 better teams didn't come calling for them.

 

[PACardsFan]

So you are saying it could be worse

I get it, but it doesn't excuse this FO for bringing back a guy who totally failed last year and the defense quit on him

We needed a fresh voice in the locker room so ML could set the tone

This is a really bad look for the FO

Many of us fans are disappointed as the Cards continue to go down the same rabbit hole time and again

I disagree that the defense quit on him. We just simply ran out of enough quality players that could make a difference. Nothing good is happening when you have YOUNG, 3rd stringers forced to play against potent offenses like the Rams, Seahawks, Niners, Bengals, etc. It’s not like we were playing the Jets or Raiders offenses down the stretch last year.

 

[TRW]

Every year it's like Groundhog Day over and over and over and...

I will expect the worst and hope for the best. Just...like...every...frickin'...year. That's the best I can muster.

ML has a HUGE mountain to climb and, it seems, doesn't have much equipment to try to scale it (on paper). But, we'll see won't we?

 

[BullheadCardFan]

I disagree that the defense quit on him.

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[RON_IN_OC]

I disagree that the defense quit on him. We just simply ran out of enough quality players that could make a difference. Nothing good is happening when you have YOUNG, 3rd stringers forced to play against potent offenses like the Rams, Seahawks, Niners, Bengals, etc. It’s not like we were playing the Jets or Raiders offenses down the stretch last year.

I don't know that they quit, but there were definitely a lot of business decisions being made during the last 4-5 games.

 

[Weenus O'Baggins]

This may be one of the funniest sports paragraphs I’ve ever read:

“And so it is a return to Rallis, who is lauded as a defensive genius around the league, although his Cardinals defenses in three seasons have ranked 25th, 21st and 27th in yards allowed and twice in three years have been in the bottom three in the league in points allowed.”

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[RON_IN_OC]

I don't know that they quit, but there were definitely a lot of business decisions being made during the last 4-5 games.

I also think Gannon was convinced his job was not in jeopardy, thus the full vanilla defense and no real changes in scheme from week to week. I fully understand the rookies and 3rd/4th stringers playing, but when the season is fully lost why not still try to rub your full game plan and be at least a little aggressive? You were gonna lose by 4TDs anyway...

 

[kerouac9]

I also think Gannon was convinced his job was not in jeopardy, thus the full vanilla defense and no real changes in scheme from week to week. I fully understand the rookies and 3rd/4th stringers playing, but when the season is fully lost why not still try to rub your full game plan and be at least a little aggressive? You were gonna lose by 4TDs anyway...

Crazy cope here

 

[Solar7]

So you are saying it could be worse

I get it, but it doesn't excuse this FO for bringing back a guy who totally failed last year and the defense quit on him

We needed a fresh voice in the locker room so ML could set the tone

This is a really bad look for the FO

Many of us fans are disappointed as the Cards continue to go down the same rabbit hole time and again

Yeah, mainly just saying it could be worse. For as hyped as Kubiak was, it's also interesting that he chose not to try to bring in a Seahawks defensive position coach as coordinator, or interview Aubrey Pleasant, etc. - imagine if we'd gotten Kubiak and he retained Rallis too? Just food for thought that maybe the remaining guys weren't as impressive as we'd hoped, despite that feeling of new blood sounding alluring no matter what.