NBC’s King: Interest between former Packers coach McCarthy, Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals’ surprising Dec. 2 win over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field had its repercussions. The Packers responded to the loss by firing head coach Mike McCarthy.

But as Arizona fell to 3-12 on the season with a loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, reports are again linking McCarthy to the desert.

That’s because with the Cardinals planning to part ways with first-year coach Steve Wilks, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, they could look at McCarthy as a replacement candidate.

NBC’s Peter King, in his weekly column released Monday, said there is mutual interest between Arizona and McCarthy.

The Mike McCarthy stuff out there is interesting. I hear he likes Arizona and would be interested in exploring the job. I heard the Cardinals have interest as well, so we’ll see, assuming Steve Wilks is one-and-done there.

Schefter added in a report Sunday that McCarthy had interest in the Cardinals’ vacancy last season once former Arizona coach Bruce Arians announced his intentions to retire.

Some Packers assistant coaches thought last year that McCarthy might land in Arizona in the Cardinals’ vacant job, according to sources.

Of course, Wilks summed it up best after his team fell, 31-9, to the Rams at State Farm Stadium: he’s still Arizona’s coach.

“I’m just working hard, doing my job. I’m the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals right now,” Wilks said, adding that he had not discussed his future with the Cardinals’ front office.

“Again, asking those guys about the future means I’m not focused at the job at hand.”

While the Cardinals have yet to make a firm decision on Wilks’ future with one game left in 2018, a source of Schefter told the ESPN reporter “he could not envision a scenario in which the Cardinals would bring back Wilks.”

As the Packers head coach, McCarthy went 125-77-2 in 13 seasons. He led Green Bay to a Super Bowl XLV win in 2011 and went 10-8 in the playoffs.

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