5 candidates to replace Steve Wilks as Arizona Cardinals coach

3. Todd Bowles

This one is a little bit out there, but stick with me. Bowles is headed for a dismissal by the New York Jets, as a third straight double-digit loss season winds down. After going 10-6 in his first season, with a bunch of veterans playing at their peak, the Jets are 14-32 since as the roster was torn down and general manager Mike Maccagnan has tried to build it back up. With ample cap space to burn heading into free agency in March, another head coach is in line to benefit from that.

Bowles has a little history in the Cardinals’ organization, serving as defensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014 before leaving to take the Jets’ job. In each of those seasons Arizona had a top-10 scoring defense.

Bowles is in line to get looks as a defensive coordinator once the Jets fire him, as immediate head coaching opportunities probably won’t be out there. The idea he’d come back to Arizona as head coach is decidedly unexciting, along the lines of when Wilks was hired. But Bowles has a better resume, and if he can nail an offensive coordinator hire a second chance has a head coach could be more successful.

Bowles’ candidacy for the Cardinals head coaching job is more rooted in a bit of familiarity, and ownership’s likely lack of imagination, than concrete reality. But if it happens, this is probably the only space that will invite even the remote possibility of Bowles replacing Wilks.