In what was a chaotic rookie situation for Christian Kirk, it is only trending upwards after the Cardinals made a leap of faith by hiring former Texas Tech head coach, Kliff Kingsbury. As we all know, Kingsbury is known for his Air-Raid attack that constantly broke the scoreboards in the Big 12. Outside of Josh Rosen (or maybe Kyler Murray), second year wideout Christian Kirk should benefit greatly from the arrival of Kingsbury. Kirk dealt with major inconsistency at the quarterback position, a mid-season change at offensive coordinator, a first year head coach who was let go at the end of the season and a broken foot that ended his season in Week 13. Through all of that, he finished his rookie season with 590 yards and three touchdowns on 43 receptions.
While at Tech, Kingsbury peppered his wide receivers. In fact, if you break down all of the receptions that came under his watch at Texas Tech, 78.1 percent of the receptions were from the wide receivers (compared to 17 percent to RBs and only 4.6 percent to TEs). It’ll be tough to expect Kingsbury to implement a full on Air-Raid offense in the NFL, but we’ll see a lot of three and four wide receiver sets. Although old man Fitz is returning for another season, the second year wide out should be the primary target. Kirk’s game in college was mostly based on yardage after the catch, turning shallow crossers into long gains. He’s not necessarily explosive downfield (4.47 40), but his footwork, positive route running and plus-hands will make him a key target in this quick-hitting attack.
When looking at Kirk’s NFL.com draft profile, it was noted that he’s “impressive on whip routes,” and is “quick in and out of breaks with sharp turns.” He was also described as playing “with strong, natural hands as a pass-catcher.” These attributes seem like the perfect fit in what Kingsbury will want to do with both Rosen and the Cardinals’ offense — specifically with the shallow crossers and whip routes.
When asked about Kingsbury, Kirk was ecstatic:
“Oh man, I think about it every single day,” Kirk told The Republic. “I’m definitely super excited just to be able to realize what I can do in this league. I got on a roll there and obviously it was unfortunate that it ended short for me, but I know what I can do and I know what I need to work on this offseason to feel like I can put myself in position to be one of the top receivers in this league.”
