Cardinals GM Keim taking health-related leave

Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim is taking a leave of absence for health-related reasons, the team announced Wednesday.

Vice president of player personnel Quentin Harris and vice president of pro personnel Adrian Wilson will handle Keim’s duties on an interim basis.

The team said it will have no further comment “out of respect for privacy — which is required by law.”

Keim, 50, has been the Cardinals’ general manager since 2013 and signed an extension with the team in March that runs through the 2027 season.

In 2018, he was suspended for five weeks and fined $200,000 by the team after pleading guilty to extreme DUI.

Keim joined the Cardinals in 1999 as a college scout and was promoted to general manager in 2013. He’s received three extensions since: February 2015, February 2018 and the one in March.

His leave of absence is the latest event in a chaotic 2022 for the Cardinals.

It started with an offseason focused on quarterback Kyler Murray: from the scrubbing of Cardinals content on his Instagram account; to an open letter his agent, Erik Burkhardt, released explaining that he sent a detailed contract proposal to the Cardinals; to Murray finally receiving a mega extension; to the revelation that an independent study clause had been included in that deal requiring him to study four extra hours a week on his own; to the removal of the clause four days after it was publicized.

In May, star receiver DeAndre Hopkins was suspended six games for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy.

In August, the Cardinals suspended then running backs coach James Saxon after a May incident in which he was charged with domestic assault came to light.

In November, Arizona fired offensive line coach Sean Kugler for allegedly inappropriately touching a woman in Mexico City.

All that, coupled with injuries to four of the Cardinals’ five starting offensive linemen, a season-ending injury to tight end Zach Ertz and injuries to wide receiver Rondale Moore, Marquise Brown and James Conner have contributed to a roller-coaster type of season in Arizona.

The Cardinals are currently 4-9 after Monday night’s 27-13 loss to the New England Patriots. In that game, Murray suffered a season-ending torn ACL.

Information from ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss was used in this report.