Now that the season is over we finally caught up with Arizona's newest owner, wieczoreks.

"Coming off of last year's losing season, there was a lot of work to be done to get the franchise back on track. I was comfortable with most of the coaching staff, but the offense had gotten stale. First thing I did was bring in Coach Roberts from New Orleans where he had been Offensive Coordinator for three seasons, and then brought in a new Offensive Coordinator, Coach Ferguson, from Cleveland. We then turned over about half the roster between Free Agent signings, draft picks, a few trades, and some shrewd waiver wire pickups. After a bit of a rough start, we managed to put together a winning record, just missing the playoffs.

I'm really proud of the work everyone put in this season, and the turn-around we've already had."

Today Arizona held a press conference to announce that coaches Ralph Martinez and Mark Moore would both be retiring from the XFL.
Coach Martinez, known for his aggressive pass rush and emphasis on tackling fundamentals, has been Arizona's Defensive Coordinator since the franchise began back in 2018. When asked for comment, Head Coach, Tim Roberts, indicated the team is hoping to hire a new coordinator quickly, but expected that hire would come from outside the organization.
Coach Moore has also been a long-time Cardinal, the teams' Receivers coach since the beginning of the franchise. Moore is reportedly applying to take over head coaching duties at his grandson's High School.

The Quarterback controversy in Arizona that has existed since the inaugural season has finally been resolved!! QB Douglas Faulks has been traded to Detroit leaving Richard Pinto as the starting quarterback to lead the team into the 2022 season.

For those who do not remember the controversy has been stewing since the initial league allocation draft when the Arizona Cardinals selected rookie QB, Douglas Faulks with their 2nd round pick. In order to give the rookie time to develop, the Cardinals also selected 4-year veteran James Jensen with their 13th round pick. Jensen was the starting QB for the 2018 pre-season but after going 1-4 to open the season, he was benched for the rookie Faulks. Faulks would play the rest of the season leading Arizona to a Division Championship and even winning their first playoff game against wildcard Minnesota. Then inexplicably, new ownership drafted rookie QB Richard Pinto in the 2nd round of the 2019 draft and benched Faulks, making him the most expensive backup in the league, giving the starting job back over to Jensen. Jensen ended up leading Arizona to their second Division Championship, also winning a playoff game against wildcard Los Angeles. However, off the field there was much turmoil in the locker room between the two quarterbacks. Faulks with a year still left on his contract demanded to be traded and Jensen, whose contract was expiring, wanted to test Free Agency. Ultimately, Jensen walked signing with Indianapolis, but Arizona got nothing in return.

Some thought the controversy in Arizona was now over, but part two was about to unfold. With Jensen gone, Arizona signed Faulks to a 4-year contract extension worth 42 million dollars. They would quickly regret that decision. Not having learned their lesson, in the 3rd round of the 2020 draft Arizona selected another rookie QB, Clay Taylor. Then to make matters worse, during the pre-season, second-year QB, Pinto was impressive throwing not one but two 75-yard passes. The offense also operated more efficiently under him despite not being as accurate as Faulks with some of his passes. Despite this, the ownership sat Pinto, committing to the QB they had just signed to a huge contract. But as the team struggled throughout the year, amassing a 5-11 record and missing the playoffs, the clamor to bench Faulks in favor of the younger Pinto was nearly constant.

Then in 2021 new owner, wieczoreks, took over the Arizona Cardinals. Pre-season reps were split between Faulks and Taylor, causing people to speculate that Pinto would be traded. However, after evaluating both QBs in pre-season, Pinto was named the opening week starter, making Faulks the league's most expensive backup for the second time in his short career. After a shaky 1-4 start, Pinto won 8 of the next 9 games, completing at least one 50+ yd pass in each of those 9 games. This still left Arizona with the problem of what to do with Faulks rather large contract. A problem that needed to be resolved this off-season.

Today, it was confirmed that Faulks has been traded to Detroit for a 2nd and a 3rd round pick. Pinto was named the starter for the upcoming season and Taylor will be the backup for the foreseeable future.

After drafting 8 linemen on both sides of the ball in last years draft, this year the front office targeted the skill positions despite already being rather deep in the backfield and at receiver. "We didn't quite get the production we were hoping for out of some of our veterans last year. So we decided to take advantage of a lighter draft class to bring in some guys that were driven enough to push anyone who has gotten complacent."

4th round pick Clayton Spencer has great hands and could easily develop into a top possession receiver or fill it in TE.
Just 3 picks later Arizona took Jack Parker, a WR out of Mississippi, who not only has good hands like Spencer, but has shown real promise as a run blocker. Parker is the heavy favorite to be Arizona's starting TE headed into camp, although he'll need to bulk up some.
In the 6th round yet another WR was targeted - Robert Taylor out of Wake Forest. Taylor doesn't have the hands that Spencer or Parker do, but with his speed and cutting ability, he could challenge a few of the returning RBs for a roster spot.

Rookie WR, Clayton Spencer, has certainly looked impressive in his first few weeks with the team. Rookie, Jack Parker still appears to need more work before taking over the starting TE role, so to make room for Spencer, 3-yr veteran Frankie Cume has been moved from WR to TE on the depth chart.
Rookie RB, Robert Taylor has looked solid, leading to the release of 4-yr vet Patrick Banach.

In addition to the three draft picks, Arizona brought in five undrafted rookies to particpate in Training Camp.
Punter, Dwayne Hensley, easily out-performed Floyd Krause, showing off an impressive leg and is likely to stay with the team.
Rodney Reidy (MLB) has good speed and great tackling technique, but still needs some more time to learn the defense. However, the coaching staff seems to like his potential and has already released linebacker Christopher Walker to make room on the roster.
Offensive linemen Gabriel Napolitano and Bruce Schaeffer both have good speed and strength, but need to work on their pass protection after each giving up a sack in the first pre-season game. 6-yr veteran tackle, Timothy Jones, was released indicating that at least one of the rookies will be staying on the roster.

After tieing with division rival Seattle in the home opener, Arizona headed to Dakota to face the Blizzard and got buried. When asked what went wrong, owner wieczoreks had this to say, "What went wrong? Did you watch the @#% game? Our quarterback was on his back more than he was upright!! Even still we kept the score close the whole way. If we just could have avoided at least one of the two safeties we gave up, we sneak out of there with a win." Those safeties came on two of the seven sacks the Arizona line gave up. The offensive line has not been able to hold off the elite pass rush these past two weeks surrendering 12 sacks already on the season. Hopefully they'll have an easier test as they host winless Brooklyn this week.