Cardinals Finally Make Change Fans Have Been Asking For

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals had several different questions to answer when it came to how their 2026 offseason would unfold and how the team dynamic would change under first-year coach Mike LaFleur.

We've gotten answers on a few different questions, mostly pertaining to the future of Kyler Murray and how LaFleur's staff would ultimately look like.

The strength and conditioning staff had been under heavy fire in recent years due to the plethora of injuries, and finally a change has been announced by the Cardinals.

Ahead of their April 7 start date of offseason team activities, Arizona announced the promotion of Kyle Sammons to new head of strength and conditioning.

"Sammons has been with the Cardinals since 2023 as a strength and conditioning assistant and the sports science coordinator," Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com said.

"The Cardinals also kept on Shea Thompson as director, football performance as well as Buddy Morris as senior reconditioning coordinator.

"The team made three hires for the department: Matt King and Rich Pruett, both of whom are assistant strength and conditioning coaches, and Aaron Sanchez as assistant strength and conditioning/reconditioning."

A massive slew of injuries in 2025 played a part in derailing the Cardinals' season, as Arizona used more players entering Week 17 than any other team.

Before making the hire official, LaFleur was asked at the league's owners meetings about the staff:

"A lot of conversations have been had, and a lot of conversations to be had, you know. So if anyone had truly that answer, everyone's still trying figuring that out. I mean, there's plenty of guys are probably getting that same question right now," LaFleur said.

"We got a process that we're going to go about in terms of how we feel like it's going to help these guys get prepared. Because some of it's like, Are they over training? Are they under training? Like, where's that fine balance? Are they getting enough competitive work? Is a joint practice different than a normal practice, just because your juices kind of get kind of get pumped up a little bit. What about the preseason?

"I mean, yesterday we were in one of the seminars, and they had a lot of great stats about playing in the preseason, not playing in the preseason, those joint practices I'm referencing. So that is a fluid conversation. We will talk about that daily. We like where we're at right now in terms of how we're going to attack this first phase, and then I got to be fluid and ready to adjust based on what it's showing us."

Now, they finally move forward with a fresh but familiar face leading the charge.