According to Adam Schefter, the Lions are in the process of wrapping up a deal with former Cardinals OC Drew Petzing to join their staff in the same capacity.
The Lions were interviewing some big-name candidates for their offensive coordinator vacancy and were expected to have an in-demand opening. So hiring Petzing comes as a fairly big surprise considering he hadn’t been connected to any jobs publicly so far, including Detroit.
Field Yates says Petzing hasn’t overlapped with Lions HC Dan Campbell, but he is extremely close with former Lions OC Ben Johnson and was a groomsman in Johnson’s wedding.
Jeremy Fowler reports Petzing will be the primary play-caller and take those duties from Campbell who had assumed them this past season.
Petzing came under a lot of fire amidst the Cardinals’ struggles this past year and there was a lot of buzz that he would have been let go even if Arizona retained former HC Jonathan Gannon.
Petzing, 38, began his NFL coaching career with the Browns as a football operations intern in 2013. The Vikings hired him as an offensive assistant in 2014-2015, promoted him to WRs assistant and QBs assistant and finally hired him as their full-time WRs coach in 2019.
From there, the Browns hired Petzing as tight ends coach in 2020. He made the move to QB coach in 2022. Arizona went on to hire him as their offensive coordinator before the 2023 season.
In 2025, the Cardinals offense ranked No. 23 in scoring and No. 19 in total offense, including No. 31 in rushing and No. 7 in passing.
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