Dennis Green’s tenure with Cardinals: By the Numbers
Jul 22, 2016, 1:56 PM | Updated: 2:17 pm
Arizona Cardinals' head coach Dennis Green, right, talks with Larry Fitzgerald in the first quarter of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in San Francisco, Sunday, Dec. 24, 2006. The Cardinals won 26-20. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green passed away Friday at the age of 67.
Green started his NFL coaching career in 1979 as a member of Bill Walsh’s coaching staff with the San Francisco 49ers.
He was the head coach at Northwestern University from 1981 to 1985 and Stanford University from 1989 to 1991.
Green’s Stanford résumé helped him land a head coaching job with the Minnesota Vikings in 1992.
Minnesota was 97-62 (.610 winning percentage) with Green at the helm. The Vikings had winning seasons each year of his reign, until his final season in 2001 when they went 5-10.
He spent two years with ESPN before being hired by the Arizona Cardinals, who were coming off of a 4-12 season and held the No. 3 pick in the 2004 draft.
This is Green’s tenure with the Cardinals, by the numbers:
3
Green coached the Cardinals for three seasons from 2004 to 2006.
16
In Green’s time in the Valley of the Sun, the Cardinals were 16-32.
5
The team started five different quarterbacks — Josh McCown, Shaun King, John Navarre, Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner — under Green.
13,336
The number of yards that Larry Fitzgerald, who the Cardinals used the 2004 No. 3 overall pick on, has in his career.
40.5
The number of sacks that 2004 third round pick Darnell Dockett collected in 10 seasons with the Cardinals.
13
Three players that were drafted between 2004 and 2006 went on to make 13 Pro Bowl appearances. Fitzgerald has played in nine, Darnell Dockett participated in three and Antrel Rolle made one appearance.
.333
Green’s winning percentage with the Cardinals was the fourth-worst among all coaches (with at least 48 games) in franchise history.
8
The 2005 Cardinals’ offense and defense were both ranked 8th in the NFL in yards for (5,575) and yards allowed (4,729). These were the team’s best finishes in the respective categories in Green’s three seasons.
1
The quarterback trio of Warner, McCown and Navarre combined for 4,723 passing yards in 2005 — the most in the league for any single team.
The Cardinals also ranked first in completions (419) and attempts (670).
20
The Cardinals blew a 20-0 lead at halftime to lose 24-23 in a Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears in 2006. The loss led to Green’s infamous “they are who we thought they were” post-game tirade.
