Top 3 candidates to be the Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator
By Sion Fawkes
Now that Jonathan Gannon won the sweepstakes to be the Arizona Cardinals latest head coach, bringing on assistants is the next logical step.
The best head coaches surround themselves with sound assistants, and new head coach Jonathan Gannon must do the same. Ideally, he would look for experience, but the top candidates that the Cardinals have reached out to or plan on reaching out to appear to be position coaches.
Below, you will find three names who may be stalking the Arizona Cardinals sideline with Gannon. Let’s meet them.
1 – Dave Borgonzi
Borgonzi was with the Chicago Bears last season, overseeing the linebackers. He also spent time as the Indianapolis Colts linebackers coach between 2018 and 2021.
His NFL coaching career began with the Dallas Cowboys, where he was a defensive assistant between 2011 and 2012, before he briefly shifted gears to offense in 2013. Starting in 2014, Borgonzi accepted the position of defensive quality control coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, before he moved on to the Colts, and ultimately, the Bears.
Borgonzi and Gannon have a history, as they coached together with the Colts in 2020. The Massachusetts native earned his first coaching gig back in 2006, when he served as a graduate assistant at Syracuse.
2 – DeMarcus Covington
The 33-year-old Covington has only spent six seasons in the NFL, but he spent them coaching under one of the league’s brightest minds in Bill Belichick. He joined Belichick’s staff in 2017 as a coaching assistant before the Patriots promoted him to outside linebackers coach in 2019. Finally, he became the defensive line coach in 2020, where he remained ever since.
Covington is a younger coach who got his first job back in 2012 when he joined UAB as a defensive graduate assistant. He also served as a GA at Ole Miss, before becoming the defensive line coach at UT Martin in 2016.
Covington has some experience as a defensive coordinator, serving in a co-role in 2016 when he was a member of the Eastern Illinois coaching staff. During his time at EIU, he also split time as the defensive line coach.
3 – Nick Rallis
Rallis is the youngest member on this list, and he served under Gannon with the Philadelphia Eagles. Still relatively inexperienced, Rallis first broke onto the scene in 2017 as a quality control coach at Wake Forest University.
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He entered the NFL ranks one year later, joining the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff in the same role, before becoming the assistant linebackers coach in 2020. He migrated to Philadelphia one year later in 2021, and served as the linebackers coach since then. Will he reunite with Gannon on the Arizona Cardinals staff? We will find out soon enough.
Source: Cardinals defensive coordinator tracker: Covington requested for interview by Arizona Sports
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