Bob McManaman | The Republic | azcentral.com

You’re a talented young wide receiver playing for your hometown NFL team. You’re coming off a rookie year in which you flirted with a 1,000-yard season. You’ve got an exciting new head coach who runs an offense called the “Air Raid,” and yes, it caters a great deal to the passing game.

How jacked are you about the 2019 Cardinals if your name is Christian Kirk?

“Oh man, I think about it every single day,” Kirk told The Republic. “I’m definitely super excited just to be able to realize what I can do in this league. I got on a roll there and obviously it was unfortunate that it ended short for me, but I know what I can do and I know what I need to work on this offseason to feel like I can put myself in position to be one of the top receivers in this league.

“So yeah, it’s exciting. I can’t wait.”

Kirk, who was in Los Angeles last week to help promote Panini America and Saturday’s NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, knows things can only get better. Though the Cardinals’ offense floundered this past season under then-head coach Steve Wilks, Kirk still managed to put up some impressive numbers.

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He wound up catching 43 passes for 590 yards and three touchdowns before suffering a broken left foot during Arizona’s Week 13 victory at Green Bay. He missed the final four weeks of the season and he was just hitting his stride when he got hurt.

“It was a routine play,” Kirk recalled. “I was backside on a pass play and just ran a 10-yard out. I cut wrong and my foot kind of got caught in the grass and I ended up breaking my foot. I played a couple more plays after because I thought I could finish the game. I played about three plays and the last play, I just couldn’t make it down the field.

“So I walked off, went in for X-rays and the next day I went in for surgery.”

A surgeon inserted a pin into the outside of his foot, which had suffered a clean fracture. Kirk has been rehabbing nearly every day at the Cardinals’ training facility, strengthening the foot by running in a pool, doing biometric exercises, and getting electric stimulation as well as massage and ice therapy.

“My recovery is going well and I’m on the road to being 100 percent here in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “I’ll be 100 percent by OTAs, for sure. It can’t get here fast enough.”

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Photos: Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury

Kirk is even more stoked because of the Cardinals’ hiring of Kliff Kingsbury as the team’s new head coach. Part of the attraction is that Kingsbury was the architect of a dynamic offense at Texas Tech that regularly put 40 points on the board and he plans to bring a form of that “Air Raid” offense to the desert.

Time will tell exactly what it will look like, but it figures to re-inject a ton of new synergy between Kirk and quarterback Josh Rosen. They developed a healthy chemistry and close friendship right away and if the “Air Raid” is half as good as its name, the two should only flourish together.

“I think it’s going to be great,” Kirk said. “I think coach Kingsbury obviously is going to bring a lot different look than what we had last year. We all know he brings a diverse, very creative offense and I think he’s going to put us in the best position to go out there and be successful and I can’t wait to get started with him.”

Kirk and Kingsbury have known each other for a while. Kingsbury started recruiting Kirk out of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale when the coach was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M in 2012. A year later, he tried recruiting him again when he became head coach at Texas Tech. Kirk ultimately chose A&M, but he’s always been a fan of Kingsbury’s offensive philosophies.

“We were able to build a little bit of a relationship way back when and it should be easy to transition because we had those prior interactions with one another,” Kirk said. “I know he’s a high-energy guy. He’s going to bring some swagger back to the team and I know a lot of guys are excited about that.”

Kirk said he met with Kingsbury last week and although most of their conversation focused on Kirk’s continuing rehab, the coach told the receiver, “We’re excited to throw it around and get this thing rolling.”

How different will the Cardinals’ offense look in 2019? Kirk has his own thoughts, but he doesn’t expect it to be wildly over the top.

“A lot of people think it’s going to be pass-heavy, but we do have a great, All-Pro running back named David Johnson,” he said, “so I definitely think we’re going to see a lot of balance. Yeah, probably a lot more creativity with formations and motions and whatnot and seeing different looks. But I think he’s going to bring a lot more balance, a more NFL kind of style offense with some twists.

“I don’t think we’re just going to be lining up in shotgun the whole time and having five wide and throwing it deep. … It’s going to come down to being balanced and just giving different looks.”

Michael Chow/azcentral sports

However Kingsbury decides to draw it up, it figures to include an awful lot of Christian Kirk in the passing game and occasionally, in the running game as well.

“Yes, just because we know his style and his playcalling is a little more pass-heavy,” Kirk said. “He’s definitely going to give Josh the opportunity to get back there and sling it around. It will be fun to know those opportunities are going to be out there and to be able to get some more footballs coming my way.”

Though Kirk took almost the entirety of his snaps as an outside wide receiver, he said he would be more than willing to move inside to the slot position should Kingsbury ask. That likely only happens, however, if Larry Fitzgerald were to decide to retire.

“We all have to wait and see what Larry does because if he comes back, he’s our slot guy,” Kirk said. “It all depends on a lot of factors, but if coach Kingsbury feels being the slot position is where I need to be and where I’ll help out the team best and I can be the most successful, then I’ll do it.”

Fellow rookie receiver Trent Sherfield said he’d bet money that Fitzgerald comes back for a 16th season. Does Kirk feel as strongly about that possibility?

“I wouldn’t be surprised, that’s what I would say,” Kirk said. “If he does come back, I would not be surprised just because of the competitor that he is. He’s doing the right thing. He’s done this the past couple years – take some time in the offseason, enjoy time to yourself, time to reflect, time to be around his family – and he’ll come to a decision. When he’s ready, he’ll let us all know.”

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Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday afternoon between 2-5:30 on AM 1060/SB Nation Radio on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch and every Wednesday afternoon between 1-4 on Fox Sports 910-AM on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.

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Photos: Cardinals draft pick Christian Kirk