Kliff Kingsbury is back in Arizona for the first time since the Cardinals fired him as their head coach after the 2022 season, but the Commanders offensive coordinator says he is not carrying any bad feelings about how things ended.
Kingsbury said on Thursday that he has “nothing but good memories” about his time with the team. Kingsbury took the Cardinals to the playoffs in 2021, but they went 4-13 during his final season and the Cardinals made a change to Jonathan Gannon early last year.
That final year was marred by quarterback Kyler Murray’s torn ACL. Kingsbury and Murray both joined the Cardinals in 2019 and Murray won the offensive rookie of the year at the helm of the offense that Kingsbury built around him. Murray’s play slipped before his injury, but he’s looked good to start this season and Kingsbury said he’s enjoyed watching from afar.
“At the end of last year I thought you could see the confidence getting back in the knee as he made a bunch of plays and played really well, and he’s played great this season,” Kingsbury said, via Damon Allred of ArizonaSports.com. “They’re a couple plays away from being undefeated. You see the speed, the quickness. The competitive nature is there. It’s been great to see the guy I basically banked my entire career on what he would be and I still believe in it. It’s cool to see him playing as well as he is.”
Kingsbury is working with another phenom in Jayden Daniels and good performances from both quarterbacks would make for an entertaining Sunday in the desert.