Ben McAdoo eyes NFL return on Kliff Kingsbury’s Cardinals staff

Ben McAdoo’s climb back into the NFL will begin will a trip to Arizona, where he will meet with Kliff Kingsbury, the newly-minted Cardinals head coach, about a position on Kingsbury’s first staff in the desert, the Post has learned.

McAdoo, 41, was fired by the Giants 12 games into the 2017 season, with the Giants sitting at 2-10 after losing to the Raiders in Oakland in a game started not by Eli Manning, but by backup Geno Smith. McAdoo sat out of coaching in 2018 but is eager to get back in, according to sources. He will meet with Kingbury to discuss football and determine if he is a fit somewhere on the offensive staff. In the NFL McAdoo has coached tight ends, quarterbacks, been an offensive coordinator and a head coach.

Kingsbury, 39, has said he would like to hire an offensive coordinator with NFL experience. McAdoo’s two years running the Giants offense, in 2014 and 2015, were successful and Manning in 2015 put together the best statistical season of his 15-year career.

There are some connections here. Kingsbury spent time as a quarterback with the Saints in 2004, the year McAdoo embarked on his NFL coaching career in New Orleans as the offensive quality control coach. Two years ago, when McAdoo traveled to Lubbock, Texas to scout Patrick Mahomes on the Texas Tech campus, Kingsbury gave up his office to McAdoo for several hours as McAdoo met with Mahomes.

McAdoo went 11-5 in his first year as head coach, getting the Giants into the playoffs for the first time in five years. He was hired, at the age of 38, and was fired with two years remaining on a contract that pays him around $3 million annually.