Cardinals Rumors: Ex-Falcons OC Steve Sarkisian Interviewing for Arizona OC Job

The Arizona Cardinals are interviewing Steve Sarkisian for their open offensive coordinator position, per Josina Anderson of ESPN.

Sarkisian, 44, recently completed a two-year stint running the Atlanta Falcons offense. He was relieved of his duties on Dec. 31. Sarkisian was previously the head coach at the University of Washington and USC. 

The Cardinals, who hired ex-Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury on Tuesday to be their new leader, are coming off a 3-13 campaign. They fired first-year head coach Steve Wilks after the 2018 season.

The Kingsbury hire represents a stark change in direction for the franchise. The Cardinals offense struggled in 2018, as the unit finished last in the league in scoring and total offense. Wilks had a defensive background, having successfully led Carolina Panthers secondaries and then the entire defense in 2017.

But teams are falling over themselves to hire offensive-minded head coaches in an era when scoring is near an all-time peak. Hence, Kingsbury, who led Texas Tech to top-25 scoring finishes nationally for five of his six seasons, became a hot commodity.

It's unclear what kind of power the new Cardinals offensive coordinator will have, but it's hard to envision any scenario that doesn't involve Kingsbury running the show on that end. While Sarkisian's Falcons offense took a step back during his tenure (it was No. 1 in scoring in the year prior to his arrival and finished No. 15 and No. 10 in his two seasons), this would seemingly be Kingsbury's offense. 

Sarkisian isn't the only name connected to the Cardinals offensive coordinator job. Former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo is on the list, per Jordan Raanan of ESPN:

As Raanan noted, McAdoo also led the Giants offense in 2014 and 2015 and found some success before taking over as head coach. His head coaching tenure started well in New York thanks to an 11-5 record and 2016 playoff appearance, but the bottom fell out in 2017. During that season, the Giants went just 2-10 under his command, and he was let go with four games remaining.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Network also connected San Francisco 49ers running-game coordinator Mike McDaniel with the job. However, the 49ers may not let him leave:

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported that Texas State head coach Jake Spavital is on the list. Texas State just hired the 33-year-old in November after he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at West Virginia for two seasons.

We'll see how things develop on the OC front and if Kingsbury is willing to relinquish control, but for now, the Arizona Cardinals have become one of the more interesting teams in the league with their bold head coaching hire.