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Is A Play A Go Or No? Kliff Kingsbury Likes Checks And Balances

Kliff Kingsbury was hired as Cardinals head coach for a multitude of reasons, one being his offensive mind and the way he has produced success on that side of the ball as a coach through the years. But he has not coached on the NFL level, and that does have a learning curve attached. There's a reason the Cardinals wanted veteran offensive assistants like passing game coordinator Tom Clements, offensive line coach Sean Kugler and running backs coach James Saxon to join the staff.

"There is a lot of give and take there," Kingsbury said. "There's a lot of things I bring to them, 'Hey, can we do this? Can we do that? Why can't we do that? Why haven't people done that?' So there are a lot of those conversations going on, which is good. Some we have figured out, some we won't figure out until we get through the preseason. But there are a lot of good conversations taking place."

Clements in particular has been good in telling Kingsbury if something might work or not, Kingsbury said. Scheming up plays in the office or in meetings is one thing, putting them into motion with real athletes on the field -- a field with more narrow hashmarks than Kingsbury dealt with in college, which affects where players line up and player spacing -- is another.

So what is Kingsbury's reaction when given such feedback? "Sometimes you say, 'OK' and sometimes you say 'We'll see,' " Kingsbury said. "Some things we have tried that haven't looked very good, we've scratched those. Some (others) remain to be seen."

One thing Kingsbury doesn't see himself doing is pulling a power trip as a head coach and force through a play or plays that aren't proving to be effective.

"I'm not too bull-headed when it comes to that stuff," he said. "I want to do what works and what's best for our team."

(From left) Passing game coordinator Tom Clements, QB Kyler Murray and head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
(From left) Passing game coordinator Tom Clements, QB Kyler Murray and head coach Kliff Kingsbury.

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