When the Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon at the end of the year, it meant that they would also relinquish the rest of the staff that was hired under him. This included offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, defensive coordinator Nick Rallis, and any other assistant/personnel member.
The Cardinals have not hired a head coach as of now, and they are still conducting interviews with candidates that they have reached out to.
There were nine head coaching vacancies as of Jan. 19, those being the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons.
As of right now, the Dolphins, Giants, Falcons, and Titans have officially hired their next head coach.
Aside from head coach openings, there are plenty of coordinator positions that need to be filled on other teams. Why are we getting at this? Well, one NFC North team that struggled to repeat the same success they had in 2024 poached off of Gannon’s old staff.
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Lions hire former Cardinals’ OC Drew Petzing
The Detroit Lions went 15–2 in 2024 which amounted to them losing their offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, to the Chicago Bears head coaching job. The team hired Denver Broncos’ passing game coordinator, John Morton, to replace him. However, after finishing 2025 with a 9–8 record and missing the playoffs, the Lions opted to fire him.
It didn’t take long for head coach Dan Campbell to find his new playcaller.
The Lions hired Drew Petzing as their new offensive guru, coming to the Motor City in the wake of Jonathan Gannon’s firing.
Under Petzing, Arizona ranked 19th in total offense, 7th in passing offense, 31st in rushing offense, and 22nd in red zone efficiency.
All things considered, the passing offense was relatively fine considering the circumstances at quarterback, as well at wide receiver depth. But obviously, things could’ve been more fluent.
It will be interesting to see how Petzing does with an entirely new group of weapons.