The Detroit Lions intend to hire Drew Petzing to be their next offensive coordinator, sources tell Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. Petzing spent the last three seasons in that role with the Arizona Cardinals, producing mixed results for their offense.
Petzing, 38, has been coaching since he worked as a graduate assistant at Boston College from 2010-11. He’s been in the NFL since he was hired by the Cleveland Browns to be a football operations intern in 2013.
Following stints as an offensive assistant with the Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns, Jonathan Gannon hired Petzing to be his offensive coordinator in 2023. In Petzing’s first season with the team, Arizona averaged just 19.4 points per game, but that improved to 23.5 points per game in 2024. That was good for 12th in the NFL.
This past season, the Cardinals’ offense was plagued by injuries to key players like Kyler Murray, James Conner and Marvin Harrison Jr. As a result, Arizona ranked 23rd in the NFL at 20.9 points per game. The Cardinals’ rushing attack ranked 31st in the NFL with just 93.1 yards per game, although the passing attack was far more potent at 232.6 yards per game, which was good enough for seventh overall.
Those numbers may not inspire much confidence in Petzing as a playcaller, but he will have far more talent with which to work in Detroit. Between Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta, the Lions are loaded at the offensive skill positions. Besides, this was a team that averaged 28.3 points in what was considered to be a down year.
That talent didn’t always click under former offensive coordinator John Morton, who was fired after just one year on the job. Following a relatively slow start for the Detroit offense, coach Dan Campbell took over playcalling duties in Week 10 and never relinquished them.
“It was just, let’s try something a little different,” Campbell said about the move in November. “Look, I know what I want to do, I know how I want to do it. Now, that being said, this is a collaborative effort. I was taking input from John Morton that whole time, and the other coaches.”
Petzing will be tasked with pushing the Lions offense closer to the heights of the Ben Johnson era from 2022-24. If he can do that, Detroit should be poised for a bounce back campaign after missing out on the current postseason.
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