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There were seven names tied to the Detroit Lions’ search for a new offensive coordinator, and several others were speculated as reasonable fits for the job. The team and coach Dan Campbell have reportedly opted to go off the board with the hire, pegging former Arizona Cardinals coordinator Drew Petzing for the role.
A former college defensive back for Middlebury College in Vermont, Petzing, 38, quickly transitioned to coaching when his playing career was cut short by injury.
A graduate assistant at Harvard and Boston College, Petzing briefly coached the linebackers at Yale before jumping to the NFL as an intern with the Cleveland Browns in 2013. There, he shifted his focus to offense, working under coordinator Norv Turner.
That led to an opportunity with the Minnesota Vikings, where Petzing followed Turner.
“He was right there next to me for every call I made,” Turner told The Athletic in 2023. “When you come in as an offensive assistant, you kind of do a little bit of everything. And I think you get tested that way a little, guys that are willing to do whatever you ask them. It doesn’t matter what it is, how big, how small, (they) enjoy doing it. That’s the way Drew was.”
Petzing spent six seasons with the Vikings, working with various position groups. He initially assisted with the running backs, then the receivers, followed by the quarterbacks. In 2019, he earned the opportunity to lead a receiver room with Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen.
When Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski took the head coaching job in Cleveland, he brought Petzing with him, where the young assistant continued to expand his resume, serving two years as the team’s tight ends coach and working with the quarterbacks in 2021.
“I think he’s one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around,” Stefanski said. “I say that because he coached defense in college, he’s moved to the offensive side of the ball, been in the running backs room, the wide receivers room, the quarterbacks room. I think that type of breadth of experience is really important as you’re developing as a young coach. I think anybody who has been around him sees somebody that has a great knowledge of the game.”
Following a 7-10 season where the team stayed competitive with Jacoby Brissett starting 11 games, Petzing was offered the opportunity to be a coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals under Jonathan Gannon. The two had worked together a decade earlier in Minnesota.
Despite starting quarterback Kyler Murray missing more than half the season, Petzing’s offense didn’t bottom out in his first year with the Cardinals, as the team finished with similar yardage and point totals as the previous season.
With Murray healthy all 17 games in 2024, the Cardinals’ offense jumped to 12th in scoring, fueled by a rushing attack led by back James Conner that averaged 5.3 yards per carry. That ranked second in the NFL, behind only the Baltimore Ravens.
Injuries again ravaged the Cardinals in 2025, sending Petzing’s offense to subpar production levels. Murray appeared in just five games, Conner was lost to a season-ending injury three weeks into the campaign, and backup Trey Benson was done a game later.
If there was a consistent bright spot under Petzing, it was the emergence of Trey McBride as the game’s most productive tight end. After just 235 receiving yards in his rookie year before Petzing arrived, McBride averaged 106 catches for 1,070 yards and five touchdowns over the past three seasons.
There are undeniable schematic elements that make Petzing a good fit for Campbell in Detroit. For one, the coordinator has shown a steady commitment to the run, with top-10 finishes in his two seasons in Arizona. He accomplished this with heavy tight end usage. The Cardinals ranked near the top of the league in 12 and 13-personnel package deployment.
