Cardinals Coaches Crack NFL Top 50 List

The Arizona Cardinals continue to build their organization from the ground up after hitting the reset button in a massive way following the 2022 season, cleaning house from the front office down to the roster.

It's been an ugly but much needed exercise for Arizona, who showed some steady improvement in 2024 after doubling their win total from the prior season. There's plenty of cap space and draft picks to ensure the Cardinals continue down the right path, too.

Key figures such as head coach Jonathan Gannon and general manager Monti Ossenfort continue to leave their fingerprints on Arizona's rebuild, though the Cardinals do have other key figures that are on track to do the same in the future.

In The Athletic's NFL 50 Under 40 list, both current Cardinals coordinators cracked the list, which is described as, "the movers and shakers in every corner of the NFL’s ecosystem who will help mold it for years to come."

Nick Rallis, Drew Petzing Names to Watch in NFL

"Petzing is viewed as a future head coach thanks to a steady climb from Cleveland Browns coaching intern in 2013, before holding various offensive assistant positions with Minnesota during a six-year span. The former Middlebury College (DIII) defensive back returned to Cleveland, where he was tight ends coach and then quarterbacks coach," wrote The Athletic.

"Success under Kevin Stefanski with the Browns led Petzing to Arizona, where he has been offensive coordinator for the last two seasons. Players and colleagues praise Petzing for his vision, his knack for finding ways to maximize his players’ strengths and his strong communication skills."

The Cardinals' offense has certainly come under fire by fans and media around Arizona, though Petzing clearly has a different aura when it comes to the league itself - and that was evident when Petzing was interviewed for the Chicago Bears' head coach opening this past offseason.

Although the NFL certainly favors offensive-minded coaches in hiring cycles, it's tough to ignore the job Rallis has done with Arizona's defense in such a short time period.

"When Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon picked Rallis as his first-time defensive coordinator in 2023, everyone on staff understood the roster had a long way to go and expectations were low. But under Rallis, a talent-thin Arizona defense outperformed those expectations and — watch the tape — played hard every week for their young coordinator," The Athletic said.

"Veteran quarterbacks such as Matthew Stafford noted Rallis’ scheme as malleable, able to shapeshift from week to week to attune to the matchup (and often experimentally so). With patience and roster investment, Rallis could be coaching one of the league’s top units in the coming seasons."

It's quite clear Petzing and Rallis are highly regarded by their peers, and both could find new opportunities sooner rather than later if things keep improving in the desert.