The Cardinals and vice president of player personnel Terry McDonough recently agreed to a four-year extension, as McDonough tells Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). McDonough presumably inked a new deal with Arizona following his dalliance with the 49ers this offseason.
McDonough was one of 11 candidates known to have interviewed for the vacant 49ers general manager position in January, and was thought to be one of the final contenders for the position, along with Vikings executive George Paton. Both McDonough and Murphy completed two interviews with San Francisco, but the open GM job instead went to John Lynch, who had no experience in personnel.
Though McDonough is now locked up in the desert for the long term, his extension shouldn’t prevent him from pursuing general manager posts in the future. McDonough doesn’t have final say on personnel matters with the Cardinals — that belongs to GM Steve Keim — so Arizona can’t block him from interviewing for promotions. And given the Cards’ effusive praise of McDonough during the last hiring cycle, they likely wouldn’t have any interest in stopping him from advancing, anyway.
McDonough has worked in Arizona since the 2013 campaign. Prior to that, McDonough spent a decade with the Jaguars, and also worked for the Browns/Ravens franchise before and after its transition to Baltimore.