The new Arizona Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon is holding his cards close to his chest ahead of the start of 2023.  Some would say even too close.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Gannon declined to reveal who will be the team’s starting quarterback for Week 1 game against the Washington Commanders. With last year’s starter Kyler Murray still out with a knee injury, the Cardinals’ quarterback room currently consists out of journeyman Joshua Dobbs and rookie Clayton Tune.

“Guys, I ain’t telling you anything,” Gannon responded to questions about whether Dobbs or Tune will start under center on Sunday.

Gannon previously described his refusal to name the starting QB as a “competitive advantage,” but said that Dobbs and Tune already know who will get to take the first snap.

Dobbs spent time with five different teams since being drafted in the fourth round of 2017 NFL Draft but only made two starts as a pro; both with the Tennessee Titans last season. The 28-year-old completed 40 passes out of 68 attempted in 2022, throwing for 411 yards, two touchdowns and two picks.

Tune doesn’t have pro experience but had more time to learn the playbook considering that Dobbs only joined the team in late August. The Cardinals drafted Tune out of Houston in the fifth round of this year’s draft. The 24-year-old played in all three of Arizona’s preseason games, completing 57.6% of his passes for 353 yards, one TD and one pick.

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Starting quarterback Kyler Murray is expected to sit out of the Arizona Cardinals game against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday as he continues rehabilitating from his hamstring injury. Backup quarterback Colt McCoy is expected to start in his place.

While listed as questionable on the Cardinals’ injury report released on Saturday night, Murray was spotted testing out his hamstring during practice on Friday by running the length of the field. According to coach Kliff Kingsbury, Murray is making good progress with his recovery.

After initially injuring his hamstring against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 8, Murray aggravated the injury during the game against the Seattle Seahawks the following week. He missed the game against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 11 as a result.

Sources close to the matter revealed that Murray may have to sit out another game after the 49ers fixture on Monday night if his current pace of rehabilitation persists.

On the other hand, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is expected to feature against the 49ers despite still harboring a hamstring strain of his own. Fellow wide receiver Marquise Brown will remain on the sidelines.

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The Arizona Cardinals will have to wrap up the 2021 regular season without their star-wideout DeAndre Hopkins. According to multiple reports, Hopkins is dealing with a knee sprain and is expected to be sidelined for more than four weeks.

Hopkins got injured during Arizona’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday. He is currently getting a second opinion in order to see whether he needs surgery. The Cardinals reportedly remain optimistic and believe they could have the Pro Bowl wide receiver back “at some point in the postseason.”

Hopkins, who already missed three games this season, hasn’t been productive in 2021 as he was last year when he earned Second-Team All-Pro honors. In 10 games, the 29-year-old managed 42 catches for 572 yards while catching eight touchdowns.

DeAndre Hopkins’ absence down the stretch serves as a tough blow for the Cardinals even though they’ve pretty much secured a playoff spot. At 10-3, Arizona is facing a tough battle to secure the NFC West title, having just one game in hand over the Rams (9-3). They would probably also want to take back the top seed in NFC and a first-round bye, which they recently relinquished to the Green Bay Packers.

The Cardinals will most likely turn to rookie Rondale Moore to fill the void left by Hopkins’ injury. They also have third-year wideout Antoine Wesley and their 2019’s second-round pick Andy Isabella as options on the position.

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The St. Louis Cardinals have found Mike Shildt’s successor in-house, hiring bench coach Oliver Marmol to be the team’s new manager. Marmol immediately becomes the youngest manager in MLB and youngest in franchise history since 1951 and Marty Marion.

The Cardinals made the announcement during a press conference before confirming the news on social media.

Speaking with reporters, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said that the team hired Marmol because they believe he is the best man to continue their project.

“Ultimately, our comfort level of keeping that continuity and really building on what we have going … we felt like we’re in a really good place directionally with where we were headed. We felt Oli could really be that seamless transition to where we’re trying to get,” Mozeliak added.

Oliver Marmol was drafted by the Cardinals back in the 2007 MLB Draft and had a brief playing career in the minors before turning to coaching. He served at several positions in the minors, including managing the Cardinals’ Low-A affiliate Palm Beach Cardinals, before being promoted to first base coach in 2017. Marmol became the bench coach for the MLB side ahead of the 2019 season.

The Cardinals moved on from Shildt shortly after they ended their 2021 playoff run with an NL wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mozeliak said at the time that the two sides parted ways due to “philosophical differences.”

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Even though the Los Angeles Dodgers had the second-best record in the entire MLB, there was still a very good chance they could’ve missed the playoffs. But Chris Taylor saved his team from that unfortunate fate by hitting a walk-off two-run homer in their wild-card elimination game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.

League rules state that the leaders of each division advance to the playoffs. After that, the top two wild card teams face off in an elimination game. The only flaw with this rule is that some divisions are much stronger than others. So this season, for instance, the only team in the league with a better record than the Dodgers were the San Francisco Giants (by a mere two games)—and they share a division with the Dodgers.

So in a shocking twist of fate, Los Angeles found themselves inches away from the potential end of their season, even though their record was substantially better than most teams in the league.

And what a nailbiter it was. The Cardinals wasted no time putting points on the board, going up 1-0 in the top of the first inning. The score remained that way until the bottom of the fourth, when Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner belted one out of the park for a solo shot, making it 1-1.

Over the next four innings, both teams were on their toes quite a bit, with countless runners finding themselves in scoring position—but none of them actually scoring due to some clutch pitching and fielding.

When the ninth inning came around, the drama was at an all-time high. St. Louis second baseman Tommy Edman was able to put himself in scoring position, but he too didn’t cross the plate due to excellent clutch pitching by the Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen.

The bottom of the ninth was the kind of thing all aspiring athletes dream about. Dodger left fielder Chris Taylor, a fan favorite, found himself at the plate with two outs and one man on. Taylor proceeded to hit the ball out of the park, ending the elimination game in heart-wrenching fashion and helping Los Angeles defeat St. Louis 3-1.

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The first Major League Baseball game played in Europe has still yet to take place, but the league likes the idea so much that they’ve announced that London will host even more games in 2020.

London’s Olympic Stadium will host a two-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs on June 13 and 14, 2020.

The series will be the second in the history of Major League Baseball played in Europe, as the Yankees and Red Sox are due to meet for two games in London in June of this year.

For both games, the Cardinals will be the designated “home” team, meaning that they will miss out on two games that otherwise would’ve been played at Busch Stadium in the 2020 season.

MLB’s initiative to host games outside of the United States has already taken the game to Japan and Mexico. Now, the league is showing a definite interest in showcasing their league on the old continent.

The games will be hosted at Olympic Stadium, which is the current home of West Ham United of the Premier League. The stadium opened in 2011 in preparation for London’s hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

More details will be announced as plans are elaborated and completed.

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There are less and less NFL teams with coaching vacancies each day. After the Green Bay Packers zeroed in on Matt LaFleur, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, and Denver Broncos all followed and found their new head coaches in the last 48 hours. New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, and Miami Dolphins now remain the only teams in the league without an HC.

Buccaneers were the first one to find a new HC, agreeing to a four-year deal with Arians on Tuesday. Arians, who decided to retire as Cardinals’ coach after the 2017 season, spent the last year as an NFL analyst for CBS.  He will succeed Dirk Koetter, who was fired after three seasons in which he compiled 19-29 record.

“Bruce Arians is one of the NFL’s most well-respected coaches over the past two decades, and we are excited to have him leading our team,” – said Buccaneers owner Bryan Glazer in a statement. “Throughout this process, we focused on finding the right coach with a proven ability to elevate our players and lead our team forward. Bruce has played a large role in the development and career success of some of our league’s best players, and we look forward to seeing him continue that work here with our franchise.”

Cardinals, on the other hand, decided to turn to college football for their new head coach hiring Kliff Kingsbury to replace Steve Wilks. Kingsbury was fired as Texas Tech coach in November after he had three straight losing seasons. 

Browns decided to stay in the house after interviewing several candidates and choose their interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens as the man who will lead the franchise in the future. Kitchens doesn’t have previous head coaching experience and was relatively unknown before taking over OC job in Week 9 of 2018 NFL season. The 44-year-old, who joined the franchise just a year ago as a running backs coach, is credited with getting most out of Browns’ offense in the eight games he called plays which was a big reason why the front office decided to give him this promotion.

Finally, Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is getting the HC job with Broncos. Fangio doesn’t have the experience of being at the helm of an NFL team but has spent the last 33 years serving at various assistant positions. He is credited for turning the Bears’ defense, which was 30th in the NFL before he joined in 2014, into NFL’s No.1 defense in scoring and takeaways.

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St. Louis Cardinals are so pleased with the way interim manager Mike Shildt led the team after Mike Matheny was fired, that they decided to give him a full-time gig. The Cardinals announced on Wednesday that Shildt would be promoted to full-time manager with a contract that runs through 2020.

“Why now? We could have waited, but we feel like the time is right,” – said Cardinals’ President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak following the announcement. “As we stated from day one, we would use this time to really see how he handled the job. We just felt like we could not do better. Mike has shown he can do the job. Mike checks a lot of boxes along the way.“

St. Louis Cardinals started the season with a 47-46 record, which put them in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the third straight year, which would be the first time since the 1997-1999 period. The front office then decided to make a change just before All-Star Break and fire Mike Matheny, who led the team since 2012.

Cardinals chose Mike Shildt, team’s bench coach, as a temporary solution and the 50-year-old made the best of this opportunity. Under Shildt, Cardinals went 27–12 and 20-5 in the last 25 games, which put them into the top spot in the National League wild-card standings.

“I have been given a lot of credit for what’s happened in the past six weeks,” – said Shildt of his success. “I appreciate it, but I cannot accept it. The players make the plays and run the bases. They are a special group, and I’m glad to be a part of it.“

While this was the first opportunity for Mike Shildt to lead an MLB team, he has managing experience from the minors where he composed a 471-432 record.

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The new Arizona Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon is holding his cards close to his chest ahead of the start of 2023.  Some would say even too close.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Gannon declined to reveal who will be the team’s starting quarterback for Week 1 game against the Washington Commanders. With last year’s starter Kyler Murray still out with a knee injury, the Cardinals’ quarterback room currently consists out of journeyman Joshua Dobbs and rookie Clayton Tune.

“Guys, I ain’t telling you anything,” Gannon responded to questions about whether Dobbs or Tune will start under center on Sunday.

Gannon previously described his refusal to name the starting QB as a “competitive advantage,” but said that Dobbs and Tune already know who will get to take the first snap.

Dobbs spent time with five different teams since being drafted in the fourth round of 2017 NFL Draft but only made two starts as a pro; both with the Tennessee Titans last season. The 28-year-old completed 40 passes out of 68 attempted in 2022, throwing for 411 yards, two touchdowns and two picks.

Tune doesn’t have pro experience but had more time to learn the playbook considering that Dobbs only joined the team in late August. The Cardinals drafted Tune out of Houston in the fifth round of this year’s draft. The 24-year-old played in all three of Arizona’s preseason games, completing 57.6% of his passes for 353 yards, one TD and one pick.

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Starting quarterback Kyler Murray is expected to sit out of the Arizona Cardinals game against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday as he continues rehabilitating from his hamstring injury. Backup quarterback Colt McCoy is expected to start in his place.

While listed as questionable on the Cardinals’ injury report released on Saturday night, Murray was spotted testing out his hamstring during practice on Friday by running the length of the field. According to coach Kliff Kingsbury, Murray is making good progress with his recovery.

After initially injuring his hamstring against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 8, Murray aggravated the injury during the game against the Seattle Seahawks the following week. He missed the game against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 11 as a result.

Sources close to the matter revealed that Murray may have to sit out another game after the 49ers fixture on Monday night if his current pace of rehabilitation persists.

On the other hand, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is expected to feature against the 49ers despite still harboring a hamstring strain of his own. Fellow wide receiver Marquise Brown will remain on the sidelines.

The post Cardinals’ Kyler Murray to Sit Out of 49ers Game appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The Arizona Cardinals will have to wrap up the 2021 regular season without their star-wideout DeAndre Hopkins. According to multiple reports, Hopkins is dealing with a knee sprain and is expected to be sidelined for more than four weeks.

Hopkins got injured during Arizona’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday. He is currently getting a second opinion in order to see whether he needs surgery. The Cardinals reportedly remain optimistic and believe they could have the Pro Bowl wide receiver back “at some point in the postseason.”

Hopkins, who already missed three games this season, hasn’t been productive in 2021 as he was last year when he earned Second-Team All-Pro honors. In 10 games, the 29-year-old managed 42 catches for 572 yards while catching eight touchdowns.

DeAndre Hopkins’ absence down the stretch serves as a tough blow for the Cardinals even though they’ve pretty much secured a playoff spot. At 10-3, Arizona is facing a tough battle to secure the NFC West title, having just one game in hand over the Rams (9-3). They would probably also want to take back the top seed in NFC and a first-round bye, which they recently relinquished to the Green Bay Packers.

The Cardinals will most likely turn to rookie Rondale Moore to fill the void left by Hopkins’ injury. They also have third-year wideout Antoine Wesley and their 2019’s second-round pick Andy Isabella as options on the position.

The post Cardinals’ DeAndre Hopkins Won’t Play Remainder of Season appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The St. Louis Cardinals have found Mike Shildt’s successor in-house, hiring bench coach Oliver Marmol to be the team’s new manager. Marmol immediately becomes the youngest manager in MLB and youngest in franchise history since 1951 and Marty Marion.

The Cardinals made the announcement during a press conference before confirming the news on social media.

Speaking with reporters, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said that the team hired Marmol because they believe he is the best man to continue their project.

“Ultimately, our comfort level of keeping that continuity and really building on what we have going … we felt like we’re in a really good place directionally with where we were headed. We felt Oli could really be that seamless transition to where we’re trying to get,” Mozeliak added.

Oliver Marmol was drafted by the Cardinals back in the 2007 MLB Draft and had a brief playing career in the minors before turning to coaching. He served at several positions in the minors, including managing the Cardinals’ Low-A affiliate Palm Beach Cardinals, before being promoted to first base coach in 2017. Marmol became the bench coach for the MLB side ahead of the 2019 season.

The Cardinals moved on from Shildt shortly after they ended their 2021 playoff run with an NL wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mozeliak said at the time that the two sides parted ways due to “philosophical differences.”

The post Cardinals Hire Bench Coach Oliver Marmol as New Manager appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Even though the Los Angeles Dodgers had the second-best record in the entire MLB, there was still a very good chance they could’ve missed the playoffs. But Chris Taylor saved his team from that unfortunate fate by hitting a walk-off two-run homer in their wild-card elimination game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.

League rules state that the leaders of each division advance to the playoffs. After that, the top two wild card teams face off in an elimination game. The only flaw with this rule is that some divisions are much stronger than others. So this season, for instance, the only team in the league with a better record than the Dodgers were the San Francisco Giants (by a mere two games)—and they share a division with the Dodgers.

So in a shocking twist of fate, Los Angeles found themselves inches away from the potential end of their season, even though their record was substantially better than most teams in the league.

And what a nailbiter it was. The Cardinals wasted no time putting points on the board, going up 1-0 in the top of the first inning. The score remained that way until the bottom of the fourth, when Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner belted one out of the park for a solo shot, making it 1-1.

Over the next four innings, both teams were on their toes quite a bit, with countless runners finding themselves in scoring position—but none of them actually scoring due to some clutch pitching and fielding.

When the ninth inning came around, the drama was at an all-time high. St. Louis second baseman Tommy Edman was able to put himself in scoring position, but he too didn’t cross the plate due to excellent clutch pitching by the Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen.

The bottom of the ninth was the kind of thing all aspiring athletes dream about. Dodger left fielder Chris Taylor, a fan favorite, found himself at the plate with two outs and one man on. Taylor proceeded to hit the ball out of the park, ending the elimination game in heart-wrenching fashion and helping Los Angeles defeat St. Louis 3-1.

The post Dodgers Eliminate Cardinals in Dramatic Walk-Off Fashion appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The first Major League Baseball game played in Europe has still yet to take place, but the league likes the idea so much that they’ve announced that London will host even more games in 2020.

London’s Olympic Stadium will host a two-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs on June 13 and 14, 2020.

The series will be the second in the history of Major League Baseball played in Europe, as the Yankees and Red Sox are due to meet for two games in London in June of this year.

For both games, the Cardinals will be the designated “home” team, meaning that they will miss out on two games that otherwise would’ve been played at Busch Stadium in the 2020 season.

MLB’s initiative to host games outside of the United States has already taken the game to Japan and Mexico. Now, the league is showing a definite interest in showcasing their league on the old continent.

The games will be hosted at Olympic Stadium, which is the current home of West Ham United of the Premier League. The stadium opened in 2011 in preparation for London’s hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

More details will be announced as plans are elaborated and completed.

The post London to Host Cardinals-Cubs Series in 2020 appeared first on SportzBonanza.

There are less and less NFL teams with coaching vacancies each day. After the Green Bay Packers zeroed in on Matt LaFleur, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, and Denver Broncos all followed and found their new head coaches in the last 48 hours. New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, and Miami Dolphins now remain the only teams in the league without an HC.

Buccaneers were the first one to find a new HC, agreeing to a four-year deal with Arians on Tuesday. Arians, who decided to retire as Cardinals’ coach after the 2017 season, spent the last year as an NFL analyst for CBS.  He will succeed Dirk Koetter, who was fired after three seasons in which he compiled 19-29 record.

“Bruce Arians is one of the NFL’s most well-respected coaches over the past two decades, and we are excited to have him leading our team,” – said Buccaneers owner Bryan Glazer in a statement. “Throughout this process, we focused on finding the right coach with a proven ability to elevate our players and lead our team forward. Bruce has played a large role in the development and career success of some of our league’s best players, and we look forward to seeing him continue that work here with our franchise.”

Cardinals, on the other hand, decided to turn to college football for their new head coach hiring Kliff Kingsbury to replace Steve Wilks. Kingsbury was fired as Texas Tech coach in November after he had three straight losing seasons. 

Browns decided to stay in the house after interviewing several candidates and choose their interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens as the man who will lead the franchise in the future. Kitchens doesn’t have previous head coaching experience and was relatively unknown before taking over OC job in Week 9 of 2018 NFL season. The 44-year-old, who joined the franchise just a year ago as a running backs coach, is credited with getting most out of Browns’ offense in the eight games he called plays which was a big reason why the front office decided to give him this promotion.

Finally, Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is getting the HC job with Broncos. Fangio doesn’t have the experience of being at the helm of an NFL team but has spent the last 33 years serving at various assistant positions. He is credited for turning the Bears’ defense, which was 30th in the NFL before he joined in 2014, into NFL’s No.1 defense in scoring and takeaways.

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St. Louis Cardinals are so pleased with the way interim manager Mike Shildt led the team after Mike Matheny was fired, that they decided to give him a full-time gig. The Cardinals announced on Wednesday that Shildt would be promoted to full-time manager with a contract that runs through 2020.

“Why now? We could have waited, but we feel like the time is right,” – said Cardinals’ President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak following the announcement. “As we stated from day one, we would use this time to really see how he handled the job. We just felt like we could not do better. Mike has shown he can do the job. Mike checks a lot of boxes along the way.“

St. Louis Cardinals started the season with a 47-46 record, which put them in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the third straight year, which would be the first time since the 1997-1999 period. The front office then decided to make a change just before All-Star Break and fire Mike Matheny, who led the team since 2012.

Cardinals chose Mike Shildt, team’s bench coach, as a temporary solution and the 50-year-old made the best of this opportunity. Under Shildt, Cardinals went 27–12 and 20-5 in the last 25 games, which put them into the top spot in the National League wild-card standings.

“I have been given a lot of credit for what’s happened in the past six weeks,” – said Shildt of his success. “I appreciate it, but I cannot accept it. The players make the plays and run the bases. They are a special group, and I’m glad to be a part of it.“

While this was the first opportunity for Mike Shildt to lead an MLB team, he has managing experience from the minors where he composed a 471-432 record.

The post St. Louis Cardinals Appoint Mike Shildt as Full-Time Manager appeared first on SportzBonanza.