TEMPE, Ariz. — New Arizona Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon has moved quickly to fill his offensive and defensive coordinator positions.
Philadelphia Eagles linebackers coach Nick Rallis will be the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator and Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach Drew Petzing will be the team’s offensive coordinator, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Rallis, 29, worked with Gannon in Philadelphia for the past two seasons. Gannon was named the Cardinals’ coach Tuesday, just two days after the Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
Before joining the Eagles, Rallis spent three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He was a defensive quality control coach in 2018 and 2019, and then added the role of assistant linebackers coach in 2020.
Rallis will be inheriting a defense that gave up the second-most points per game in the NFL last season, was ranked 28th in third-down defense, 29th in red zone defense and 31st in goal-to-go defense. Arizona ranked 21st in total yards allowed per game and 22nd in yards per play.
Petzing, 35, just completed his first season as the Browns’ quarterbacks coach. He was the team’s tight ends coach the previous two seasons.
Before that, he was with the Vikings for six seasons, culminating with the 2019 season, when he was the team’s wide receivers coach. He and Gannon were on the Vikings’ staff together from the 2014 to ’17 seasons.
Petzing will be tasked with working with quarterback Kyler Murray whenever he is ready to return from a torn ACL he suffered late last season. Gannon said at his introductory news conference that one of his first tasks would be to find offensive coaches who he feels are the right fit to work with Murray.
The Cardinals finished 22nd in total offense last season and 21st in points per game.
NFL Network first reported the Cardinals’ hiring of Rallis and Petzing.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jake Trotter contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com