The Arizona Cardinals face an offseason of uncertainty. General manager Steve Keim has taken a health-related leave of absence and his return is uncertain.
In the meantime, Adrian Wilson and Quentin Harris, both of whom hold vice president titles over player personnel and pro personnel, both are splitting the duties Keim left.
With Keim’s return in doubt, it leaves the Cardinals with the decision to replace him or not.
If they do, they appear set on doing something that has been on-brand for them as a franchise — promoting internally to fill a vacant GM job.
Since the Cardinals came to Arizona, only one general manager has been hired from outside.
The one outside GM hiring was Buddy Ryan, who was hired to be head coach and GM in 1993.
Keim worked his way up through the organization. Rod Graves, his predecessor, was in a VP role with the team for several years before he was named GM. Before him, it was Bob Ferguson, who was also promoted to GM after Ryan was fired.
Before Ryan, the GM was Larry Wilson, who was a Hall of Fame player, coached the team and then worked his way up in the front office to be GM.
Wilson and Harris have been with the team for years. Wilson has ascended rather quickly through the ranks over the last eight years, while Harris has been in the organization in player personnel and scouting for 15.
An internal hiring makes sense. They have two qualified candidates who are likely going to land a GM job somewhere in the near future.
On the other hand, with some of the organizational issues on and off the field, hiring someone from the outside might be what the team needs to clean up some of the internal culture that seems to be plaguing the organization.
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