Columnist Kent Somers: It seems a foregone conclusion that the Cardinals will fire their head coach, but will happen to their GM?

Photos: Arizona Cardinals at Atlanta Falcons

Kent Somers | The Republic | azcentral.com

Only one team in Cardinals' Arizona history (2000) won as few as 3 games

Rob Schumacher/azcentral sports

It takes more than two hands to count the number of unpleasant Mondays the Cardinals and coach Steve Wilks have suffered through this season, and the latest one was no different.

Wilks held the usual day-after news conference following the 40-14 loss to the Falcons on Sunday and said the usual things.

Most likely, he is as tired of saying them as we are of hearing them.

This is little consolation to him, but Wilks probably will have to do this only one more time, next Monday. It seems a foregone conclusion the day-after news conference on Dec. 31 will be about his firing.

What remains in question is if it’s a package deal, with General Manager Steve Keim sharing boxes and packing tape with Wilks.

This could be the worst Cardinals team since the franchise moved to Arizona in 1988, so jobs will be lost, starting with that of Wilks.

Will that be the end of it?

Keim's resume warrants more time

My hunch is that team President Michael Bidwill gives Keim another year to repair the damage that’s been done, and I think it’s warranted.

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Neither Wilks nor Keim did their jobs well in 2018, but Keim has a resume that warrants another season on the job. In his first three years as general manager, the Cardinals won 34 games, the most successful three-year period in franchise history.

That should count for something: Another year to put the team back on the right track.

But it’s unfair to blame just Wilks for this year’s 3-11 record.

Wilks failed miserably as a head coach, most notably in failing to properly utilize talent and make adjustments on game day. But poor drafts in 2016 and 2017, coupled with miscalculations in free agency, led to a roster lacking in talent.

That’s on Keim, who made matters worse by missing training camp while being suspended for extreme DUI.

Firing Keim now, however, would be a mistake and not because he signed a four-year contract extension last February.

Keim deserves to stay because there was a time in the not-so-distant past that he was one of the better general managers in the NFL.

He traded next to nothing to get quarterback Carson Palmer. He traded for pass rusher Chandler Jones and signed him to a long-term contract. He drafted David Johnson, Tyrann Mathieu, Markus Golden, Deone Bucannon and John Brown. He found key, economical free agents in the summer to address weaknesses, such as John Abraham, Eric Winston, Tommy Kelly and Josh Bynes.

There was a time when Cardinals fans viewed “Keim time” as a good thing.

Rob Schumacher/The Republic

The 2013 through 2015 seasons were heady times for the Cardinals, and some in the organization let it go to their heads, at least subconsciously.

They forgot one of the oldest cliches in sport is also filled with truth: Be humble or get humbled. Keim, and the whole organization, should be as humble as monks now.

Too many high draft picks have failed, and too many free agents have not panned out. Combine that with a rookie head coach, and it’s no secret why the Cardinals are 3-11 and the leading contender for the first overall pick.

I would bet on Keim bouncing back.

Keim’s loved football since he was a kid. He dreamed of being a general manager since he studied draft magazines instead of his science homework. The sport means a great deal to him.

He hasn’t consented to interviews outside his weekly ones with the team’s flagship radio station, but having known him for close to 20 years, my guess is that Keim is both mad and motivated.

It’s a good combination.

The tricky part to firing Wilks and keeping Keim is that Bidwill would be allowing Keim to help pick a new coach. And if the Cardinals have another bad season in 2019, that coach will be working with a new general manager.

It’s a risk I would take.

While Bidwill is evaluating others in the organization, he should also look at himself.

Since his family owns the team, Bidwill obviously is going nowhere, but he has to take ownership of this debacle, too.

He’s a hands-on owner who was involved in hiring Wilks, signing free agents and drafting players. When times were good, Bidwill was given plenty of credit, deservedly so, and he accepted it.

Now that the team has regressed to a level not seen since the Sun Devil Stadium days, Bidwill should shoulder a share of the responsibility.

Maybe he will whenever he speaks publicly. That’s likely to be Dec. 31, the day after the season mercifully ends.

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