All Eyes on Cardinals OC as Pressure Builds for 2025

The Arizona Cardinals were close to making the postseason last year, and as champions of the NFC West nonetheless.

But the second half of the season rolled by and the wheels not only fell off, but the team completely derailed.

There were several factors that contributed to Arizona's collapse, but perhaps nothing killed the team more than its offense. Turnovers, a lack of scoring, and anything/everything in between ruined a promising season.

At the front of all of it was offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing.

Drew Petzing Enters Make-Or-Break Year

The third-year OC is the latest young offensive mind the league covets. He is viewed as someone who can, and should, become a head coach one day. Whether those expectations are justifiable or not is up for debate, but that is simply the way it is.

As he enters his third season running things in the desert, it's time to prove he's worthy of his hype as an innovative offensive mind.. Remember, Petzing received interviews as a potential head coaching candidate this offseason, so he clearly has the attention of the league.

The offense in Petzing's control is an intriguing one. The depth isn't necessarily there across the board for several positions, but they have fantastic players at the top of each position's respective depth chart.

Trey McBride leads the tight end room as one of the best in the NFL. Marvin Harrison Jr. was the fourth overall pick a season ago and has shown signs of being great. James Conner has quietly been one of the league's most productive and consistent running backs since arriving in the desert.

The depth behind those three isn't great, but they can each carry their respective rooms by themselves.

Then, you have Kyler Murray. We know he can be great, but he hasn't touched his promise in a long time; perhaps he will never reach his maximum potential. Still, a great scheme could help reinvent the former number one overall pick and get this offense back on track.

So, we have an All-Pro tight end, terrific young receiver, stud running back, and a starting caliber quarterback to run the offense. That's the recipe needed to create, at worst, an offense that should be in the top half of the league.

It means Petzing has no excuses not to improve production from the group in 2025, starting with schemes and play-calling.

2025 is an important season for the Cardinals as a whole, too. The team is way ahead in its rebuild under Jonathan Gannon and thus the minimum expectation has been increased in Arizona.

An 8-9 season where the playoffs were within its grasp means meeting that mark again this season in an absolute worst-case scenario. However, they should be aiming for no worse than a winning record.

But winning the NFC West division is realistic after a tight race last season.

As we mentioned, the team fell apart late in the year and the offense was one of, if not the, biggest factors in such. So, if the Cardinals are to take the step forward being asked (perhaps required) of them, the offense can't slump like it did.

Again, there's so much potential and several high-level players here to use and abuse. Petzing needs to set his guys up to have far better success in 2025 - or this is it.

Not only could Petzing be done in the desert, but his future chances to become an NFL head coach take a drastic hit to the immediate future.

He could be fired from the Cardinals and be forced to start fresh somewhere else, which sets his timeline back substantially, and it could even cost him those chances all together.

2025 is a career-defining season for Petzing.

The Cardinals need Petzing to step his game up to get back to January football, and he needs to do so to make sure his career doesn't plateau or even plummet.

It's a huge year of proving oneself for Petzing and his success (or failure) could decide how Arizona fares moving forward into 2025 and beyond.

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