Paradise didn't suit Kliff Kingsbury.
After being fired as coach of the Arizona Cardinals in January 2023, Kingsbury traveled the world while he pondered his next move. He enjoyed the white sand beaches of Thailand with his girlfriend. He joined friends in Costa Rica, where he tossed Frisbees along the Pacific Ocean, worked out and observed as his friends closed nine-figure deals over video calls.
During this time, Kingsbury spent many moments reflecting. His final season in Arizona had made him contemplate a life outside of football, so he peppered his friends with questions about their careers -- what they did, why and how they overcame failures.
"We had deep conversations about life," said Nikil Viswanathan, a billionaire entrepreneur and close friend who accompanied Kingsbury to Costa Rica. "He was definitely uncertain at that point. He was considering several options."
Kingsbury, who is being paid through 2027 by the Cardinals thanks to a five-year contract extension signed in 2022, could have turned the layoff into a leisurely lifestyle. Instead, three months of traveling brought him to a different conclusion.
Retirement sucked.
"He was losing his mind and knew he had to go back to do something," his brother, Klint, said.
That something was football. Kingsbury spent the following season as a senior offensive analyst at USC, where his good friend Lincoln Riley is coach. Then in February, Kingsbury was hired by Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn as offensive coordinator.
"All I'd done is football for a long time, and I was just like, 'Hey, I've had enough,'" Kingsbury said. "The last year in Arizona was just ... a lot of things we went through made it feel like it was not for me anymore. And then being able to step away and travel and do all those things, I was like, I knew I had more to give."
Since that revelation, Kingsbury has found a renewed joy for coaching -- one that possibly could lead him to another top job. With the Commanders, he has been free to focus on what he loves to do most: running an offense and building relationships with players. He said he has been more comfortable and open in meetings. He has built trust with players and helped design an offense centered around rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. This has been pivotal to the franchise's turnaround in Quinn's first season, which continues in the wild-card round on Sunday at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8 p.m. ET, NBC).
From watching Quinn work, Kingsbury also has reflected on what he'd change if given another head coaching opportunity. For now, however, he said he is putting any talk of his next move on hold. He has found comfort and clarity on the field and in the meeting rooms with Washington.
"I don't know if I've ever had a more enjoyable season than I have this year," Kingsbury said.
KINGSBURY STOOD OUTSIDE the football training facility at Arizona State University ahead of the Commanders' Week 4 game against the Cardinals. Staring at a half dozen cameras, he answered questions about facing, for the first time, the franchise that fired him 10 months after giving him a five-year contract extension.
"I still got my house here. I love it out here," Kingsbury said. "I will always be grateful to [Cardinals owner] Michael [Bidwill] for giving that opportunity that he did. And then the guys in that building, some of my closest friends and then the team. Nothing but positive memories."
Arizona lured Kingsbury away from Texas Tech in January 2019, hoping his offensive acumen could breathe life into the franchise. Holding the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft, the Cardinals selected Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Kyler Murray, tying Kingsbury's fate to the young signal-caller.
"He's a guy I basically banked my entire career on what he would be," Kingsbury said of Murray earlier this year.
The partnership started on a high but soon fell off. By the end of the 2022 campaign, the connection between coach and quarterback began to fray. The two would go stretches without much interaction. Kingsbury's relationship had deteriorated with others in the organization, as well, including Bidwill and former general manager Steve Keim. Players said Kingsbury often would avoid confrontation. Further complicating matters were the "Hard Knocks" cameras documenting the team throughout the season.
"It was Hard Knocks, Kyler was hurt and pissed off. There was a ton of stuff. Injuries," said one person who knows Kingsbury well of his time in Arizona.
Kingsbury said his time with Quinn has opened his eyes to what he could have done better with the Cardinals. Quinn, who was fired by the Atlanta Falcons six years into his first head coaching job, transformed the Commanders from a 4-13 team to a 12-game winner in his first season, much of it due to applying lessons learned from his failures in Atlanta.
"I don't think I set the foundation [in Arizona] the way I would do it after watching [Quinn] and how he set the foundation from day one," Kingsbury said. "These are the standards, this is what we want, this is what we're going to be. I definitely could have done a better job of that."
STEPPING INTO A new role has enabled Kingsbury to show another side of himself.
Earlier this season, Kingsbury's dad, Tim, was in town and took a trip to visit a hallowed place for him: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. He looked for the names of the people with whom he served. He did not share much about what he experienced in Vietnam with his family, but he would tell Kliff, "Being able to see their names makes it that they're remembered."
What Kingsbury did next was surprising: He shared his father's story with his players.
The room grew quieter the more emotional Kingsbury became.
"I got choked up talking to the team," Kingsbury said. "I usually never cry before the team or in football or anything like that. It was just talking about the appreciation that we have for what we get to do. This guy that goes to the wall and it's ... very powerful.
"That is why this year has been so much more fulfilling than I can remember, because I have gotten to be more my authentic self. And I remember when I was a younger coach, that's kind of what I was and why I loved it. ... It's allowed me to build more relationships with the players again, which is my favorite part of the whole job. They can get to know me better on the more personal side."
Commanders tight end Zach Ertz has noticed the difference. He spent 1½ seasons with Kingsbury in Arizona and signed with Washington to reunite with the coach, saying Kingsbury was one of his coaches who believed in him the most.
"He's just more outgoing, he's more open," Ertz said. "He's communicating. He's telling stories that maybe he wouldn't have. He's interacting with guys more, just the way he goes back and forth with guys in the front of the meeting room. He's direct when he has to be but also joking at times. He has a good balance."
Ertz said it was obvious in the spring that another side of Kingsbury was emerging.
"He did it once, and I was like, I want to see him continue to do it. Not everything was hyperfocused on football," Ertz said. "This is a relationship business. Obviously, winning games and being at your best is important, but being in this together is a big part of it."
AS DANIELS RAN from the sideline to the huddle in the closing seconds of the first half in the Commanders' Week 5 game against the visiting Cleveland Browns, he passed Kingsbury. Still in stride, the rookie QB asked his OC to call a deep pass to wide receiver Dyami Brown on the next play.
Kingsbury didn't hesitate.
On the next snap, Daniels lofted a perfect ball down the right sideline, connecting with Brown for a 41-yard touchdown. Kingsbury's trust in what Daniels had seen was rewarded.
"Kliff has a really good ability to have a pulse on what's going on in the field," Washington quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard said. "He really has a feel for the essence of what's going on. And I think that speaks to how he pays attention to people first. Because then I think that's energy."
Kingsbury has focused on immersing himself in his coordinator duties, which has produced immediate results. He and Daniels have transformed a unit that ranked 23rd in points and 24th in yards in 2023 into one that finished fifth and seventh, respectively, this season.
Players say Kingsbury has sought and valued their input, which is a departure from last season. He has moved away from the four wide receiver approach that were a feature of his offenses at Texas Tech and Arizona. But despite fewer wideouts on the field, he has been more aggressive throwing the ball down the field (13 pass attempts of 40 air yards or more; second in the NFL). And he has embraced the no-huddle, attempting 197 more passes out of no-huddle looks than any other team.
"I love how we attack," Quinn said.
The offense's production is made possible by the way Kingsbury, who arrives at the facility around 4 a.m. each day, prepares himself and the team, particularly during walk-throughs. Running back Austin Ekeler said he has never participated in more walk-throughs than he has this season; Washington's offense often goes through two or three a day, but those extra reps make executing in games easier.
"At the end of the day Friday when you're doing another walk-through and sick of it," former Cardinals quarterback Colt McCoy said, "by the time you get to the game, you're not blinking when he calls a play and you've walked through it 10 times. It allows you to take what you've learned in the classroom and visualize and see it on the field. It's class on the grass."
Washington offensive tackle Andrew Wylie offered his take on Kingsbury.
"There's a lot of grinders in the NFL," Wylie said, "but he's truly a different breed when he comes into the building. He's a hundred miles an hour, and he's the first one in the building. So, he is truly a workaholic."
DURING HIS WEEKLY session with reporters on Jan. 2, Kingsbury was asked if he was ready to field all the head coaching questions that were bound to come his way. Kingsbury, who was seated in a chair against the wall, smiled as he started to stand.
"It would take a lot to leave this kid," he said.
That "kid," of course, is Daniels. Kingsbury -- who played one season with the New England Patriots alongside Tom Brady and coached Johnny Manziel, Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes in college -- had been high on the former LSU star since watching his college film. By June's minicamp, Kingsbury had told his brother that Daniels' playmaking, work ethic and drive reminded him of Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs' three-time Super Bowl winner.
"He's meant a lot, obviously, for my development and my growth from the day I stepped foot here to this point now," Daniels said of Kingsbury. "Just to be able to see and get to learn the type of person Kliff is on and off the field, it's only helped our relationship grow."
ESPN's Courtney Cronin reported that the Chicago Bears would like to talk to Kingsbury for their opening. But according to multiple team sources in Washington, it's not a slam dunk that Kingsbury will leave. With Daniels' emergence in Year 1, it will take more than a big offer to make Kingsbury leave Washington.
"I didn't get into this to be a head coach again," Kingsbury told ESPN last month. "It's not about money. It never has been about money. So, that won't move me at all. It's just I want to do the best job we can here for those guys and then kind of go from there."
Quinn was recently in Kingsbury's shoes, serving as defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys the previous three years, after Atlanta had fired him. He said Kingsbury has earned the right to be choosy.
"Nothing can replace the joy that you have of where you're at," Quinn said.
"Jayden is an incredible player, and he's absolute a blast to coach [with] his confidence, humility, playmaking ability. This train ain't slowing down. If you feel like you have to force it, then you're probably not making the right choice."
Regardless of what happens next, the path Kingsbury has traveled over the past two years has helped reshape his future.
"That's why he's in such a good place," Klint Kingsbury said. "He's figured out why he does it and what's important."