Arizona Cardinals to promote linebackers coach to DC post

The Arizona Cardinals will reportedly promote outside linebackers coach James Bettcher to defensive coordinator, then hire for Bettcher’s old post.

While no announcement will be made until after the Super Bowl, it appears the Arizona Cardinals have found their man to replace the newly departed defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles, who took the head coaching job with the New York Jets. The team will promote from within and reportedly hire outside linebackers coach James Bettcher to helm the defense. This will be the first time Bettcher has served in such a capacity.

#Cards will hold off on making any coaching announcements until after the Super Bowl, expected to promote James Bettcher & add two coaches.
— Mike Jurecki (@mikejurecki) January 27, 2015

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The move is similar to the last one made by Arians and management, when they hired a young Bowles to run their defense. Now the 36-year old Bettcher will get his first shot at running an NFL defense, and he’ll get a beauty to work with. The Cardinals sported one of the best defenses in the league, which likely explains why the team preferred to run with an in-house candidate. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, and the Cardinals defense is definitely not getting accused of being broken any time soon.

Bettcher came to the Cardinals with Bruce Arians when Arians left the Indianapolis Colts so he could become the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Bettcher was a Special Assistant to the Head Coach in Indy (not to be confused with the Special Assistant Head Coach).

One of Bettcher’s first tasks with the Cardinals will be to find new linebackers coaches. Between his own absence of the outside linebackers post and the vacancy of the inside linebackers position — ILB coach Mike Caldwell left with Bowles for the Jets — Bettcher will have a chance to rebuild the unit’s coaching structure to his preference.

Bettcher will have a nice heads up on thing with the talent at hand. The Cardinals struggled in giving up big yardage thanks to a plethora of injuries, but the team still gave up the fewest fifth points against in the NFL.

Now with another year ahead and hopefully some better luck on the injury front, Bettcher is hoping the biggest job of his career can result in more success than the Cardinals have seen since their magical run to the Super Bowl with Kurt Warner.

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