Jimmy Johnson: Player Personnel, Not Coaching the Problem for Arizona Cardinals

LBS recently caught up with Super Bowl and National Championship winning coach Jimmy Johnson who’s running the first annual Crown Royal Jimmy Bowl (enter here for your chance to play football at Cowboys Stadium after the Super Bowl and be coached by Jimmy Johnson!). Jimmy already told us he thinks coaching is an issue for the 49ers, but what about their Monday night counterpart? Johnson thinks the players are the problem with the Cardinals, not the coaches.

The Cardinals reached the Super Bowl under coach Ken Whisenhunt and have won the NFC West twice. Jimmy attributed Arizona’s 3-7 start to the loss of key players over the off-season, including Kurt Warner, Karlos Dansby, Antrel Rolle, and Anquan Boldin. He said the coaching is the same, but they’ve lost a lot of good players.

While losing Dansby and Rolle have hurt the defense tremendously, the biggest dropoff for the Cardinals has been at the quarterback position. Arizona has gone from starting potential Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner to using Derek Anderson and Max Hall in games. Under Whisenhunt with Warner at QB, the Cardinals have had the 7th, 3rd, and 11th most productive offense in football. This year they’re the 28th, only better than three teams. I agree with Jimmy — it’s the players that has resulted in the losing in Arizona, not the coaches.