Arizona Cardinals Coaching Staff for 2023
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Arizona Cardinals Coaching Staff for 2023

The Arizona Cardinals Coaching Staff Looks Very Different in 2023

 

After 4 years under the direction of Kliff Kingsbury, owner Michael Bidwill made the tough decision to entirely overhaul the Arizona Cardinals coaching staff for the 2023 season.

As the Cards get ready to move into Training Camp, here is an overview of the completely refurbished coaching staff starting at the very top with the big man himself…

 

Head Coach – Jonathan Gannon

The first piece to fall into place, Gannon was announced as the new head coach of the Arizona Cardinals on February 14, 2023.

Before becoming the 39th head coach of the Cardinals, Gannon spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles heading up a defensive unit that was instrumental in their 2022 Super Bowl run.

Gannon was heavily criticized for the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss as they were only the second team in NFL history to give up a double-digit halftime lead by allowing the Chiefs to score on every offensive drive of the second half, giving up a total of 31 points. Whether that criticism is well-deserved or not is a topic of controversy, but AZSU writer Marcos Labrada puts forward a compelling case that Gannon was not the reason the Eagles lost Super Bowl LVII.

Super Bowl aside, the Eagles defensive unit put up some historic numbers in 2022 under the direction of Gannon. Ranking top ten in nearly every defensive category imaginable, they gave up the least passing yards in the league and the second least yards per play to go along with an astounding 70 sacks on the season.

Before his time in Philly, Gannon spent 13 years working his way up the ranks in the NFL, starting in 2007 as a defensive quality control coach for the Atlanta Falcons. In 2009, he moved into the front office of the St. Louis Rams and spent three years there, one as a college scout and two as a pro scout, giving him a unique mix of coaching/scouting experience.

Gannon moved back into coaching in 2012, spending two seasons with the Tennessee Titans as a defensive quality control coach before moving to Minnesota in 2014 to be an assistant defensive backs coach for the Vikings.

In 2018, he moved again to Indianapolis to spend two seasons as the Colts defensive backs coach before finally earning the defensive coordinator position in Philadelphia.

In many ways, he is the complete opposite of former head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Gannon is a defensive-minded coach that has over 16 years of NFL experience.

 

Offensive Coordinator – Drew Petzing

Most recently the quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns, Petzing has also spent a significant amount of time in the NFL in a variety of roles.

Here is an overview:

  • Cleveland Browns
    • Football Operations Intern (2013)
  • Minnesota Vikings
    • Offensive assistant (2014-15)
    • Assistant wide receivers coach (2016-17)
    • Assistant quarterbacks coach (2018)
    • Wide receivers coach (2019)
  • Cleveland Browns
    • Tight ends coach (2020-21)
    • Quarterbacks coach (2022)

In what might look like a pattern in a bit, head coach Jonathan Gannon met Petzing during their overlapping stints with the Minnesota Vikings.

Not much is definitively known about the offensive scheme that Petzing will employ in his first season as an offensive coordinator, but it has been confirmed multiple times that it will be nothing like the quasi-Air Raid/Spread offense of Kingsbury.

Considering Petzing’s background, it seems most likely he will employ something similar to a West Coast offense, originally popularized by Bill Walsh in the 1960s and 1970s.

Still a popular scheme, many modern coaches like Andy Reid, Kyle Shannahan, Sean McVay, and Matt LaFleur have very successfully utilized their own tweaked versions of the West Coast.

 

Defensive Coordinator – Nick Rallis

Another major change to the Arizona Cardinals coaching staff, Vance Joseph, who some thought might remain with the team was released and Gannon brought in his own guy, Nick Rallis.

Rallis, at only 30 years old, is the youngest coordinator-level coach in the NFL and follows Gannon from Philadelphia where he was linebackers coach from 2021 to 2022. Before that, Rallis spent three years in Minnesota working in defensive quality control and with the linebackers.

Surprisingly, even less is known about the defensive scheme that Rallis intends to employ with the Cardinals in 2023.

The team has worked with a 3-4 base defense since 2007, minus the 2018 disaster. The Cards are employing an outside linebackers coach, ASU favorite Rob Rodriguez, and the position names on the official roster still include outside linebackers. This is notable because in most base 4-3 schemes, the edge defenders are called defensive ends.

Gannon and Rallis have both been on record saying this the Cardinals defense will be a mix of various schemes and will not be beholden to one or the other. This varied defense is most likely the way of the future and the 3-4 vs 4-3 debate will hold less and less importance as defenses are forced to defend against increasingly more dynamic offensive skill players.

Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator – Jeff Rodgers

The only holdover from the Kingsbury regime, Jeff Rodgers is entering his sixth season on the Arizona Cardinals coaching staff.

Rodgers joined the Cardinals in 2018 after three seasons as the special teams coordinator for the Chicago Bears. In 2019, assistant head coach was added to his title and responsibilities with the team.

Before his stint in Chicago, Rodgers spent time working with the special teams units of the Broncos, Panthers, and 49ers in an NFL career that stretches back to 2003.

Through the ups and downs of the past six seasons, Rodgers’ unit has proven one of the most reliable for the Cardinals and his well-coached special teams units have earned praise throughout the NFL.

Sticking through three head coaching changes, Steve Wilks, Kliff Kingsbury, and now Jonathan Gannon,  is a rare feat in the football world and speaks volumes to the respect that Rodgers has in Arizona and the broader NFL world.

Passing Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers – Drew Terrell

A Chandler, AZ native, Drew Terrell comes back to the desert after spending the last seasons as the wide receivers coach for the Washington Commanders.

Terrell played four seasons with the Stanford Cardinal where he was the team’s leading receiver in 2012 when the Cardinal went 12-2, winning the Pac-12 and the Rose Bowl.

In Washington, Terrell worked heavily with star receiver Terry McLaurin and was influential in the quick development of rookie Jahan Dotson whose 7 touchdowns was tied in 2022 for most by a rookie receiver.

A part of the NFL’s Coach Accelerator program, Terrell was hired by the Cardinals in early March to take over the passing game and coach the wide receiver group.

Quarterbacks – Israel Woolfork

A fairly recent addition to the NFl coaching ranks, Woolfork spent six years on the staff at Miami University (OH) before joining the Cleveland Browns under the Bill Walsh NFL diversity coaching fellowship.

Woolfork has now followed Drew Petzing from the Browns to Arizona to serve as quarterbacks coach working with young QB Kyler Murray.

Offensive Line – Klayton Adams

Klayton Adams has a wealth of coaching experience at the collegiate level working with various position groups throughout the offense.

In the NFL, he spent four seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, first as an assistant offensive line coach and then as tight ends coach from 2021-2022.

Adams had accepted a position at Stanford as the offensive line/running games coach before being offered a position on the staff of the Arizona Cardinals.

Running Backs – Autry Denson

Most recently the head coach of Charleston Southern University from 2019 to 2022, Denson was a star running back at Notre Dame in the late 1990s.

He is still the all-time leading rusher at Notre Dame with 4,318 yards and 43 touchdowns over his four seasons with the Fighting Irish.

After a brief time bouncing around the league with the Buccs, Dolphins, Bears, Colts, and Lions, Denson started his coaching career as the head coach at Pope John Paul II HS in Florida before entering the college ranks as the running backs coach at Bethune-Cookman from 2011-2013. He also spent some time at Miami (OH) and back at his alma mater, Notre Dame from 2015-2018.

Tight Ends – Ben Steele

After going undrafted out of Mesa State in 2001, Steele spent time on the rosters of several teams including the 49ers, Raiders, Seahawks, Vikings, Packers, and Texans.

After six years in the league, Steele started working through the college ranks before spending five seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2014-2018 with two of those seasons as the tight ends coach. Stints with the Falcons, Vikings, and Broncos followed before he was hired as the tight ends coach of the Arizona Cardinals in February 2023.

Passing Game Specialist – Spencer Whipple

One of the few holdovers from the previous regime, Spencer Whipple has been with the Arizona Cardinals since 2019. Starting as an offensive quality control coach, he has since moved up the ranks to assistant wide receivers coach, co-passing game coordinator, and finally, pass game specialist.

Before the NFL, Whipple spent five seasons in a variety of positions at the University of Massachusetts where he had spent one season as a backup QB in 2008. He also played at Miami from 2010-2011 where his father, Mark Whipple, was the offensive coordinator.

During the COVID season of 2020, Whipple called the offense alongside then-OL coach Sean Kugler in a game against the Cleveland Browns that head coach Kliff Kingsbury was forced to miss with illness. In that win the Cardinals advanced to 6-0 and put up 37 points.

Defensive Line Coach – Derrick LeBlanc

Derrick LeBlanc got his start in the NFL through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship in 2004.

He spent several years in the college ranks at the University of Arkansas and the University of Kentucky before spending a season with the Miami Dolphins as the assistant defensive line coach.

LeBlanc mentored several NFL draft selections during his time as a college coach.

  • Jonathan Marshall – 6th Round (2021)
  • Quinton Bohanna – 6th Round (2021)
  • Phil Hoskins – 7th Round (2021)
  • Khyri Thornton – 3rd Round (2014)
  • Rakeem Nunez-Roches – Undrafted, but 8 year career in NFL (2015)
  • Mike Purcell – Undrafted, but 10 year career in NFL (2012)

Outside Linebackers – Rob Rodriguez

Before accepting the outside linebacker job with the Cardinals, Rob Rodriguez was a much-beloved defensive line coach for the Arizona State Sun Devils.

An El Paso native, Rodriguez was a standout linebacker at the University of Texas-El Paso and was WAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 after a season with 121 tackles, including 16 tackles for loss.

He started coaching at his alma mater in 2008 and was the linebackers coach from 2010-2014. In 2015, Rodriguez started his NFL career with a five-season stint as the assistant defensive line coach for the Minnesota Vikings before returning to the college ranks to spend three seasons as the defensive line coach at Arizona State.

Staying in Tempe, Rodriguez was named the outside linebackers coach of the Arizona Cardinals in February 2023.

Linebackers – Sam Siefkes

Not surprisingly, the Minnesota Vikings connections continue with linebackers coach Sam Siefkes.

Siefkes was the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at Wofford College before taking a position on the staff of the Minnesota Vikings in 2021. He worked with a good linebacker group there that included All-Pro Eric Kendricks, 4x Pro Bowler Anthony Barr, and Nick Vigil.

Cornerbacks – Ryan Smith

A relative newcomer to the world of coaching, Ryan Smith’s first NFL coaching gig will be here in the desert working with the Cardinals cornerbacks room.

Before the NFL, Smith spent two seasons coaching the cornerbacks of the Virginia Tech Hokies including the 22nd pick in the 2021 Draft, Caleb Farley, currently with the Tennessee Titans.

Defensive Backs – Patrick Toney

Patrick Toney comes to the Arizona Cardinals with over a decade of experience in the college football world including several stints as high as the defensive coordinator position.

Most recently, he was the co-defensive coordinator for the University of Florida.

 

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