While Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks offered candid and refreshing comments about his job status this week, offensive coordinator Mike McCoy stuck with the dull, trite, coach-speak.
"We're preparing like every other week," McCoy said, via the team's official website. "Our objective every week is to go out and win the next game we're playing. That's our focus."
Yup, canned and boring, just like his offense.
Wilks said Monday "all of our jobs are in jeopardy" if the Cardinals don't beat the Denver Broncos on Thursday. The response was to a question about McCoy's standing and whether the Cardinals could fire the offensive coordinator if the team loses.
McCoy said Tuesday he's not listening to the chatter about his performance.
"No offense, but I don't watch a lot of TV," McCoy said. "I don't read papers. I don't get on the internet. I'm too busy doing other things, putting plans together. And when my family is in town, I spend every minute I can with them, or talking to them at night when they're in San Diego, things like that. I've been in this long enough [to not get wrapped up in the fervor]."
Well, since he's not reading this: McCoy pilots one of the least-diverse, unimaginative, monotonous, stale, stuck-in-the-past offenses in the entire NFL.
Provided a rookie quarterback who can make wow throws, one of the greatest receivers in NFL history, another dynamic young wideout, a field-stretching tight end and one of the most lethal dual-threat running backs in the NFL, McCoy's offense is a dead-on-arrival operation that undermines talent.
Yes, the offensive line is a sieve, and Josh Rosen has his bouts with growing pains. That still doesn't explain how McCoy continues to underutilize David Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. Johnson's usage is especially mind-boggling.
Compare the running back's 2016 stats (Bruce Arians) to his 2018 numbers (McCoy):
David Johnson 2016: 23.6 touches per game; 132.4 scrimmage YPG; 5.7 scrimmage yards per touch.
David Johnson 2018: 18.2 touches per game; 72.0 scrimmage YPG; 4.0 scrimmage yards per touch.
Johnson has not eclipsed 80 rushing yards in any game this season. More disturbing is he hasn't generated more than 41 yards receiving in any game (a number he blasted past nine times in 2016 and in his only game in 2017). In the last three tilts, Johnson has generated just seven combined receptions for 72 yards.
If you had a running back who was averaging more than 10 yards per catch the past three games and can burn just about any linebacker on the planet, wouldn't you, ummm, call his number more?
McCoy's offense underutilizes one of biggest mismatches in the entire NFL. Somewhere an actual good offensive mind is pulling his hair out.
If this were McCoy's first rodeo, perhaps the problems could be excused as growth struggles. Nope. We've seen plenty of McCoy to judge him aptly. He bombed out with Philip Rivers in San Diego and was jettisoned from Denver after just 10 games because his offense was so putrid.
Yet for all the evidence that McCoy isn't made for offensive football in 2018, he got another high-profile job. We'll see how long he keeps this one.
