Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has reportedly made the decision to return to the franchise in the same role next season, despite getting serious head-coaching interest from the New Orleans Saints and other teams.
Assuming Kingsbury does, in fact, return to the Commanders, it is the best possible move for all parties involved.
Let’s start with the Commanders’ side of this.
Kingsbury played an essential role in helping the development of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, taking the Commanders offense and turning it into one of the best units in the entire NFL. It completely changed the franchise and turned it into an immediate Super Bowl contender in all of their first years with the team.
Now they get to run that back again, while also giving Daniels the same system and coaching staff for year two of his career. For as good as Daniels is, asking him to learn an entirely new offense for the second year in a row would have been a big obstacle.
As for Kingsbury, he is in an ideal situation where there should not be much incentive to change unless the perfect situation presents itself.
The Saints, or most of the other head-coaching jobs that were available this offseason, did not really present that.
He is being paid like a head coach because the Cardinals are still paying him his salary. He also gets an opportunity to work with one of the game’s best young quarterbacks and build up his resume for another year, while also perhaps waiting for a better opportunity to present itself.
Why would he want to leave a situation where he can work with a rising star on a Super Bowl contender to take over a team with no quarterback option and limited short- and long-term prospects?
There is also the reality that Kingsbury just might be better off in a coordinator role. His first two experiences as a head coach (both at Texas Tech and with the Cardinals) produced consistent losing records. Some people are better off running a certain element of the team as opposed to the whole operation. Kingsbury might be one of them. There is also nothing wrong with that.
