The Cardinals march into next season as one of the NFC's most talented teams and logical candidate for Super Bowl LI.
Gearing up for this weekend's rookie minicamp, coach Bruce Arians knows anything less than a championship won't cut it in Arizona, a welcome pressure for what he called his last NFL job.
"Oh, yeah. You never know how long this will last," Arians told Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic. "There's the old saying, there's two kinds of coaches, ones that are fired and others who are going to get fired. You just enjoy every day. Right now, it's the highlight of it. There will be lowlights, we know that. But I'm enjoying every single day."
Said Arians: "This will be my last job."
At 63, Arians can peer back on a career that started in the mid-1970s as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. Forty-plus years later, he's widely regarded as one of the game's top offensive minds. Defying his age, Arians also sets the standard for working with players four decades his junior -- embracing their talents and flaws, while backing some athletes that other teams would pass on.
Of course, Arians has said this all before. Talking with Gregg Rosenthal back in 2011, Arians -- during his five-year run as Pittsburgh's play-caller -- said: "I'll end my career as a Steeler because this is going to be my last job. I don't have to worry about it. I can retire."
Arians, though, had no idea how that job in Pittsburgh would end, with the Steelers choosing not to renew his contract in 2012 following a 12-4 season. Talking with NFL Media columnist Michael Silver in 2014, Arians explained that he announced he "was retiring" to make it "easier" on the Steelers, adding: "Yeah, I was upset about it."
His final chapter in Pittsburgh left a sour taste, but the Cardinals hope Arians goes out on a sweet note when it's all said and done in the desert.
