I was thoroughly impressed with the Arizona Cardinals during their post-season run to the Super Bowl and, while they arrived a season or more before I thought they would, I’ve thought even over the last couple years that they looked like they might at least be inching in the right direction.

That said, continuity is a major contibutor to success in the National Football League and it’s looking less and less like the Cardinals are going to have a lot of that going for them in the fall of 2009.

Dan Patrick on his morning radio show earlier in the week interviewed a Cardinals beat reporter from the Arizona Republic. I missed the guy’s name but I heard him say he was virtually certain that running back Edgerrin James was a goner during the offseason.

Tim Hightower and J.J. Arrington played a lot during the regular season it was James who did the heavy lifting in the run game when the Cardinals actually dedicated themselves to having a run game during the postseason.

If James was the only guy leaving it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But hotshot quarterback Kurt Warner is a free agent and less-heralded but fantastic wideout Anquan Boldin has made noise at various points about hitting the road as well. The beat reporter said he thinks Warner will be back. Boldin, on the other hand, he put at 50-50. Stud wideout Larry Fitzgerald might be the best receiver in the league right now but he was helped immensely by the presence of Boldin and Steve Breaston.

If the trio goes from those three to Fitzgerald, Breaston and … Jerheme Urban? That’s still a pretty good top three – but Urban is to Boldin what Troy Williamson was to Randy Moss in Minnesota. It’s a whole different ballgame.

Anyway, news from the last couple days ensures that continuity among the Cardinals’ skill position players is hardly the only change Arizona will face heading into 2009. On Friday, the Kansas City Chiefs confirmed they were hiring Cardinals’ offensive coordinator Todd Haley away.

On Saturday the team followed up by firing Clancy Pendergast, the defensive coordinator. This one threw me a little bit. The defense was far from stellar during the regular season but it hit a stride during the postseason that helped carry the team to the Super Bowl. I thought he’d earned another season to see if he could follow it up.

Nonetheless, head coach Ken Whisenhunt, owner Bill Bidwell and the Cardinals’ entire front office have a big task in front of them to build on the momentum established during the run to Tampa. This isn’t to say that they can’t do it – the Cardinals, at least at this point, anyway, would have to be my choice to win the NFC West. And Whisenhunt has certainly proven himself a capable head man.

But the task of repeating, especially as Super Bowl loser, has always been tough. And these changes don’t make the task any easier.