Lions Hire Drew Petzing For Lions OC | Lions News

According to several reports, the Detroit Lions are finalizing a deal to hire Drew Petzing as their new offensive coordinator.

For the past three seasons, Petzing has served as the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive coordinator. During that time, the Cardinals ranked 24th (2023), 12th (2024), and 23rd (2025) in points scored. But he did manage to build out a very strong run game in his first two years with the Cardinals. In 2023, the Cardinals ranked fourth in rushing yards. The following year, they ranked seventh. Both years, they ranked second in yards per rush—finishing with 5.0 yards per carry in 2023 and 5.3 in 2024. However, the run game fell apart in 2025—both due to injuries and the team heavily relying on the passing game (first in passing attempts, last in rushing attempts). The Cardinals ranked 31st in rushing yards, but 16th in yards per carry.

Prior to his time with the Cardinals, Petzing served as the tight ends coach for two years with the Cleveland Browns before jumping to the quarterbacks coach. And prior to that, he spent six years with the Vikings under Mike Zimmer, serving various roles, including wide receivers coach, assistant quarterbacks coach, and offensive assistant.

While Petzing does not have a direct connection to coach Dan Campbell, he interestingly has ties with former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

Although Drew Petzing and Dan Campbell have not coached together previously, there is a connection of sorts: Petzing is extremely close to Ben Johnson. They coached together at Boston College and Petzing served as one of Johnson's groomsmen. https://t.co/BC81S75A7P

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 19, 2026
In short, the Lions are getting an experienced play-caller with varied success over the past three years with the Cardinals. Prior to that, he’s worked with several different position groups and worked his way up for the past dozen years among the NFL coaching ranks.
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