Closer Understanding of Drew Petzing’s Offense

What are Drew Petzing’s priorities and 2025 goals?

Entering year three of Drew Petzing’s command of the Arizona Cardinals offense, it may be helpful to add greater clarification as to what Petzing’s priorities are.

Scheme Priorities:

1. Run the football, preferably out of 12 (1 RB, 2 TEs) and 13 1 RB, 3 TEs) personnel.
2. Run a steady diet of RPOs and play action passes.
3. Run mostly 11 personnel spread-type of formation on passing downs.

Personnel Priorities every year (beyond QB):

1. OL
2. RB
3. TE
4. WR

2024 Touches:

1. 283 —- RB James Conner
2. 112 —- TE Trey McBride
3. 78 —- QB Kyler Murray
4. 69 —- RB Trey Benson
5. 62 —- WR Marvin Harrison Jr.
6. 48 —- WR Michael Wilson
7. 46 —- RB Michael Carter
8. 42 —- WR Greg Dortch
9. 40 —- RB Emari Demercado
10. 20 —- TE Elijah Higgins

Cardinals’ 2024 Pass/Run Percentages:

1. 543 Pass —- 53.8% —-20th highest
2. 463 Run —- 46.2% —- 13th highest

Where Drew Petzing wants his offense to be in 2025:

Among the top 5 in run percentage:

1. PHI —- 59.4%
2. BAL —- 53.8%
3. PIT —- 52.1%
4. GB —- 52.1%
5. WAS —- 50.9%

Note: All 5 of these teams made the playoffs. 2 (PHI and WAS) played in the NFC Championship Game and 1 (PHI) was the Super Bowl winner.

Why is running the football more in vogue in the NFL these days?

1. Ball control wears down the opponents’ defense, while it is able to give the team’s own defense ample time to rest between possessions.
2. Today’s linebackers tend to be on the smaller, faster side that those in the past, because of defenses understanding of how critical it is to have linebackers who are effective in pass coverage. It is extremely difficult to win if the opposing offense is exploiting the defense, particularly in the rushing and passing games over the middle of the field.
3. It puts less wear and tear on the team’s QB, particularly now that it takes 20-21 games for a team to win the Super Bowl.

Why and how the Cardinals’ offense was somewhat off track in 2024:

1. Injuries to Will Hernandez and Jonah Williams. Both Hernandez and Williams played very well when healthy.
2. Marvin Harrison Jr., as talented a pass catcher as he is and, as insistent the fans were about wanting the team to tank for him, was not the best system fit available to the Cardinals at pick #4. y.
3. From week to week there was added pressure on Kyler Murray to feed the ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. In retrospect, it was a mistake and an aberration of the offense to target MHJ 116 times for a completion percentage of 53.4%.
4. If one takes out MHJ’s targets and catches, Kyler Murray’s completion percentage would have been 72.9%. In fact, 3 Cardinals made the NFL’s 2024 Top 100 receivers in “catch rates”: James Conner at 85.5% (9th in NFL), Trey McBride at 75.5% (48th in the NFL) and Greg Dortch at 74.0% (59th in the NFL).

Kyler Murray’s 2024 pass completions (NFL rank)

• 10+ —- 163 —- #11
• 20+ —- 44 —- #19
• 30+ —- 12 —- #25
• 40+ —- 3 —- #29
• 50+ —- 1—- #31

Short, Intermediate and Deep 2024 Completion Percentages NFC West

• Murray —- short: 78.1% —- intermediate: 56.6% —- deep: 36.1%
• Stafford: —- short: 70.6% —- intermediate: 59.2% —- deep: 42.6%
• Smith —- short: 79.1% —- intermediate: 61.8% —- deep: 43.3%
• Purdy —- short: 70.6% —- intermediate: 65.6% —- deep: 41.9%

2024 Offensive Accomplishments to Build on:

1. 5.3 yards per carry (#2 in NFL)
2. Leading the NFC West in rushing yards, rushing yards per carry, rushing TDs, 20+ runs, 30+ runs, 40+ runs and rushing 1st downs.
3. Games where Kyler Murray played like an MVP. Example (1): In 41-10 home W versus LAR, 17/21, 266 yds, 81.0%, 12.7 ave. catch, 3 TDs, 0 ints., 4/32/8.0 rushing, 153.8 RTG, 98.3 QBR. Example (2): in home W versus NYJ: 22/24, 266 yds, 91.7%, 11.1 ypc, 1 TD, 0 int. 3/21/7.0/2 TDs rushing, 126.7 RTG, 95.5 QBR.
4. Trey McBride’s 1,111 yards receiving.
5. James Conner’s 1,094 yards rushing, 4.6 ypc, 8 TDs, 414 yards receiving, 8.8 ave., 1 TD
6. Cardinals’ offensive line helping to lead team to #7 best rushing yards per game, #2 best yards per carry and the #4th highest grade unit in pass protection.
7. Kyler Murray’s 573 yards rushing at 7.3 yards per carry and 5 TDs.
8. James Conner (76.9) and Trey Benson (77.0) in pass pro.

2025 Drew Petzing’s Offensive Goals:

1. Return to the top 5 of the NFL in rushing yards per game and rushing play percentage.
2. Keep the focus on what the offense does best.
3. Clean up last year’s 14 false starts and 27 offensive holding penalties.
4. Connect on a higher percentage of intermediate and deep passes.
5. Play Marvin Harrison jr. more frequently in the slot.
6. Keep incorporating more speed, short and reverse motions.
7. Feed the Dortch.
8. Enable Michael Wilson to have a breakthrough year in yards and TDs.
9. Decide on the best system fits at LG, RG, RT.
10. Add a superb pass catching TE to go opposite Trey McBride in 12 and 13 personnel.