ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions’ search for a new offensive coordinator is over after two weeks.
Detroit is hiring Drew Petzing as its next offensive coordinator, per multiple national reports. Petzing has served as the Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator since 2023, operating as Jonathan Gannon’s play-caller for the last three seasons.
It’s not the big, home-run hire many were hoping for after the Lions finished 9-8 and missed the postseason. They fired former offensive coordinator John Morton two days after the season ended. Morton lost play-caller duties midway through the season, with coach Dan Campbell taking over for the rest of the year.
Petzing previously coached quarterbacks and tight ends with the Cleveland Browns (2020-2022) and receivers and quarterbacks with the Minnesota Vikings (2016-2019). The 38-year-old started his coaching career as a student assistant at Harvard (2009), then bounced around Boston College and Yale before joining the Browns in 2013 as a football operations intern.
He has not previously worked with Campbell, so it’ll be interesting to see if the coach hands off his offense to a fresh voice and a new set of eyes. ESPN’s Field Yates reports Petzing is close with former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. The two worked together at Boston College, and Petzing served as one of Johnson’s groomsmen.
This past season, Petzing’s offense finished 23rd in scoring, 26th in passing and 16th in rushing. The Cardinals had quarterback Kyler Murray for only five games, and lost top running back James Conner after only three. Petzing leaned on veteran Jacoby Brissett to throw over and over again, usually targeting tight end Trey McBride in the process, to end the season.
Brissett had more than 30 passing attempts in all of his 12 starts this season. The journeyman quarterback had seven games with at least 40 passing attempts, so there wasn’t much variance happening out west. McBride caught 126 passes this past season, setting a new record for tight ends in just his fourth season. Petzing has an eye for tight ends, and should have some creativity for the run-blocking schemes to bring with him to Allen Park, on the bright side.
In 2024, with a healthier unit, Arizona’s offense ranked 12th in scoring, 14th in passing and second on the ground, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
Petzing’s rushing attack appears to be the strongest part of his time in Arizona. The Cardinals were also a top-five rushing unit in 2023, and after an up-and-down ride on the ground in Detroit, it seems like it was a priority to get someone with that work. Conner had the only two 1,000-yard rushing seasons of his nine-year career in the first two seasons under Petzing.
The new offensive coordinator in Detroit’s best season in Arizona came in 2024, and had many thinking the Cardinals would be much better than they were this past season. They ranked ninth in rushing success rate and in the top 10 in EPA per rush and per play that season. Obviously, some of these struggles can be pinned on Murray’s strange couple of years. But it’s a dot many didn’t see getting connected to Detroit.
The new Lions offensive coordinator has NFL experience as a play caller and coached several positions, but comes after a mixed bag of results from Arizona. The Cardinals went the entire 2025 campaign without scoring 30 points once in a single game. They abandoned the rushing attack down the stretch, rushing for only 100 yards once across their final eight games.
The Lions ran for fewer than 100 yards seven times this year, losing all seven of those games. In the last season under Johnson, they failed to hit the century mark in only one game, including the playoffs.
Former Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon had to defend Petzing’s offense multiple times before he got the axe out west. Some of that was due to injuries, no doubt, but it’s fair to call this a surprising rush-to-hire with so much movement in the NFL still taking place. Detroit’s offensive coordinator position is one of the most appealing on the market, and that includes some of the head-coaching opportunities.
The Lions have a franchise quarterback in Jared Goff, All-Pro wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, arguably the league’s best offensive lineman in Penei Sewell, Jameson Williams fresh off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and electric running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
There are plenty of pieces to play with on the quest to get this offense back to where it’s expected to be on a consistent basis. But for the second straight offseason, the Lions are turning to an unheralded name to fill the coveted position. And this all comes when the Lions need to remake their offensive line and hope Sam LaPorta’s back is ready for the regular season.
When asked what he wanted in a new offensive coordinator, general manager Brad Holmes highlighted leadership, ability to command a room and a detail-oriented coach.
“You just have to be able to know that there’s somebody that’s going to be able to dot every ‘I,’ cross every ‘T’ and make sure that nothing is compromised from a detail standpoint, from a standards standpoint, from the start of the game-planning period all the way ‘till the end of the week,” Holmes said earlier this month.
“So, I do think a lot of it is just you’ve got to just get in front of them, hear them out, spend some time with them and kind of hear their ideas, hear their philosophy, do a lot of vetting — as much vetting as you can — and just make the decision. But I think when you go through the process of getting in front of them, when you know, you know.”
Campbell will have to decide whether he wants to continue calling plays or not. For the second time in five seasons, he took over the role midway through the season. He is balancing the pros and cons of handing the reins off to the new offensive coordinator.
The Lions coach knows his eyes are needed elsewhere, especially after how his defense fell apart down the stretch. But Campbell is an offensive coach by trade who knows what he wants his unit to be and look like.
“I guess one of the good things, if I did do that (keep the role), you don’t have to worry about somebody else leaving,” Campbell said at his year-end press conference. “You don’t have to worry about your play-caller leaving. So, that would be one of the perks of it.
“But listen, I’m going to think through all of that, and I think I really want to do what I feel is best for the team — and that included. If I believe that’s what’s best for us and I feel good about it, then I will. If I just feel like, ‘Eh,’ then I won’t do it. I won’t do it.”
