NFL insider provides some more context around Kliff Kingsbury’s Thailand trip

For those wondering about what Kliff Kingsbury is doing in Thailand, we have an update on it.

After spending his whole life in football, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury is relaxing in Thailand with his girlfriend and figuring out what comes next.

This is apparently what Kingsbury is doing right now. NFL Insider Jordan Schultz of The Score informed Pat McAfee and the boys on Friday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show what is going on with Kingsbury. There are two big takeaways from Schultz’s 30-minute FaceTime conversation with the former Arizona coach: He wants to coach again, and he wants to coach again in the NFL.

Despite having coached at places like his alma mater Texas Tech previously, Kingsbury does not want to return to the college game.

With many offensive coordinator roles available, Kingsbury could return to the NFL in that capacity next season, or potentially sit out the 2023 campaign before resurfacing once again in 2024.

NFL insider Jordan Schultz updates everyone on Kliff Kingsbury’s trip to Thailand

There are a few interesting wrinkles stemming from Schultz’s conversation with Kingsbury. The first is Kingsbury has either been playing or coaching football every year of his adult life. He will be 44 years old in August, so if he wants to take a break from the sport for a year or so, he has definitely earned that right. The other big thing is Kingsbury does not want to go back to college…

Though he played in the NFL from 2003 to 2006 with five different franchises, he had not coached in the NFL prior to becoming the head coach of the Cardinals in 2019. From 2008 to 2018, he had either been on Kevin Sumlin’s coaching staff (Houston, Texas A&M) or leading his alma mater’s program. Kingsbury had been an elite coordinator under Sumlin with the Aggies before Texas Tech.

Frankly, Kingsbury is going to need to rehabilitate his image before possibly becoming an NFL head coach again. The re-entry point for him is probably as an offensive coordinator, but more importantly, he needs to pick the right job. Though there are a ton of coordinator gigs available in this cycle, we have seen good coaches take bad jobs just to take a job. Kingsbury will have options.

Now we know why Kingsbury did not jump at the coordinator gigs at Clemson, TCU and Arkansas.