Know what NFL GMs know —- Drew Petzing is a budding star

After just two seasons, the Cardinals’ OC is already getting head coaching interviews

Hordes of Cardinals’ fans who for the past two years have been blaming Kyler Murray’s struggles on Kliff Kingsbury —- even to the dubious extent of trolling Washington Commanders’ fans the message of “we told you” that Kliff’s offense, as the season goes along, without fail, is going to fall apart.

Why have those fans suddenly hit the mute button regarding Kliff?

It was one thing to watch Kliff’s offense with super poised, athletic, fun-loving rookie QB Jayden Daniels, lay a total 42-14 ass whooping on the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium back on September 29th —- but it is quite another this season to watch Kliff, Daniels and the Commanders go 5-2 down the stretch to emerge as the #6 seed in the NFC playoffs, —-while Kyler Murray down the stretch with a lead in the NFC West, once again became turnover prone during the Cardinals 2-5 year-end collapse.

Surprise, surprise —- the same hordes of Cardinals’ fans are now blaming Drew Petzing for Kyler Murray’s continued struggles to close out seasons, generate a consistently productive passing attack and prevail in games when winning matters most.

These are the same fans that spent an entire year hoping and wishing that the Cardinals would “Tank for Marvin.”

Because, after all, surrounding Kyler with all of the best possible talent is of paramount importance, even when it means that the GM in two seasons hasn’t drafted a big-sized, space-eating, run-stuffing defensive tackle or a bona fide, durable, star-quality edge rusher, even after having the audacity to pass on Will Anderson Jr. in 2023.

Then this tweet came popping through the wires yesterday:

Here were just some of the reactions from Cardinals’ fans:

Oh, the irony of TreyMcBrideFan begging the Bears to take the OC who has helped turn Trey McBride into a bona fide NFL superstar.

But —- you see —- Trey McBride doesn’t matter.

Neither does James Connor.

Neither do Paris Johnson, Jr. Hjalte Froholdt, Will Hernandez, Evan Brown, Isaiah Adams, Trystan Colon, Kelvin Beachum, Christian Jones or Johan Williams. The most physical and highest graded Cardinals’ offensive line since the mid 1970s.

Neither do these eye-popping facts happen to matter:

2024 Cardinals Rushing Rankings:

• YDS —- 2,451 —- #7 in NFL —- #1 in NFCW
• YPC —- 5.3 —- #2 in NFL —- #1 in NFCW
• TDs —- 18 —- #8 in NFL —- #1 in NFCW
• 20+ —- 17 —- #6 in NFL —- #1 in NFCW
• 40+ —- 7 —- #1 in NFL —- #1 in NFCW
• 1stDs — 136 —- #8 in NFL —- #1 in NFCW

No, of course, there are only two players in the Cardinals’ team who matter:

• QB Kyler Murray
• WR Marvin Harrison Jr.

And now many fans are mocking another WR to the Cardinals in the 2nd round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

It may never end.

Yesterday, Seahawks’ head coach Mike Macdonald fired 1st year OC Ryan Grubb after a surprising 10-win season in which Grubb’s unit posted the NFL’s #5 passing offense in yards with 4,379.

Why?

Mike Macdonald, who as a rookie head coach, swept the Cardinals and made them look like pretenders, has a vision of his offense being hugely productive in the running game, as the offense was in Baltimore when he was the DC in 2022-2023 and as it was at Michigan when he was the DC in 2021.

Macdonald said, “It’s really as simple as just I felt like the direction our offense was going was different than the vision that I had for our team and felt like it was just a necessary decision at this point.”

The truth of the matter is —- the coaches and defensive players in the NFC West who have to play the Cardinals twice every year would exhale huge sigh of relief were Drew Petzing to leave Arizona. Petzing’s run-heavy 12 and 13 personnel offense with attack-dog running backs and big, athletic tight ends is designed to smashmouth, hammer and punish opponents to the point of breaking their will.

Thing is —- it works.

And GMs around the NFL are taking notice.

The other thing is —- were Drew Petzing to take a head coaching job, he’d very likely take offensive line coach, Klayton Adams (another unsung star-caliber coach on the staff) with him to be his offensive coordinator.

Let this be said about Klayton Adams —-> he is the BEST offensive line coach the Cardinals have had since they moved to Arizona. Bar none. I mean, look at the stellar job he has done with every makeshift lineup during the course of this season —- like he did this week prepping an OL of LT-Kelvin Beachum, LG-Evan Brown, C-Hjalte Froholdt, RG-Isaiah Adams, RT Christian Jones to produce and perform to the tune of 397 total yards (151 rushing, 242 yards passing) and a season-high 47 points.

Here’s another little secret —- Drew Petzing has been developing two other budding star assistant coaches in running backs coach Autry Denson and TE coach Ben Steele.

Lastly, for all the moaning a groaning from fans about the Cardinals’ supposedly woeful passing game —- while this year it did not consistently make Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. look like “generational” talents —- it produced a 1,146 receiver in Trey McBride, 885 yards and 8 TDs from rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. and 548 yards and 4 TDs from 2nd year WR Michael Wilson —- 3,859 yards in all, which, for a run-heavy team is actually quite respectable.

PFF had the Cardinals’ 2024 passing game graded #10 at 78.1.

Kyler Murray’s 2024 Passing Stats and rankings (per ESPN)

• YDS —- 3,851 —- 11th
• TDs —- 21 —-Tied-13th
• INTs —-11 —- Tied-95th
• QBR —- 66.5 —- 9th

Kyle finished the season with the highest QBR of his career at 66.5 (#10 in NFL), 2nd highest completion percentage at 68.8% and 3rd highest RTG (passer rating) at 93.5.

However, Kyler’s TD/int ratio of 21/11 was the lowest of his career and his 3rd down and long (8-10) yards conversion percentage was 30th in the NFL. As has been the case for the last three years, Kyler tends to throw a frustratingly ample number of his 3rd down conversion attempts under the sticks.

Breaking Kyler out of some his old habits has not been easy. But Kyler appears to be more receptable to the coaching. That receptiveness brings hope for 2025.

Kurt Warner’s video analyses of Kyler’s passing efficiency in Drew Petzing’s offense have refuted the notion that Kyler’s receivers are not getting open. But for the past three years, Kyler has seemed all the more tentative throwing downfield. This off-season, Drew Petzing and Kyler have to figure out a way to improve Kyler’s downfield passing. The difference is especially notable here:

Kyler Murray’s Passing Yards Per Game:

• 2019 —- 232.6
• 2020 —- 248.2
• 2021 —- 270.5
• 2022 —- 215.3
• 2023 —- 224.8
• 2024 —- 226.6

Harkening back to Week 7 after the Cardinals eked out a 17-15 home win over the Chargers, the hue and cry from Cardinals fans was how disconnected the offense looked in the passing game. The leading receivers that night were James Conner and Trey McBride with 51 yards each, while Marvin Harrison ‘s line was 3 catches on 6 targets for 21 yards.

FIRE PETZING NOW!

Yet, after the Cardinals’ passing game showed up big-time the next week on the road versus the Dolphins and the team pulled off a stunning 28-27 come-from-behind win, when Drew Petzing was asked “what changed from last week to this?” —-

Petzing drolly responded, “Nothing changed. We did a better job of executing the plays.”

As a former coach, that salient response from Drew Petzing endeared me to him. One of the hard lessons one learns as a coach is to stay true to your playbook because when one panics and tries to do something completely new in the middle of a season, that typically will tear the whole system down.

Like the hard lesson James Bettcher learned when in one week’s prep he installed a whole new scheme versus Cam Newton in the NFC Championship game at Carolina. The new scheme not only failed — it resulted in the players screaming and yelling at each other on the sidelines.

Drew Petzing has worn all of the following hats in the NFL:

• Assistant WR coach
• Assistant QB coach
• QB coach
• WR coach
• TE coach
• Offensive Coordinator

For those who have been questioning his knowledge and understanding of NFL passing game scheme, you may want to do a little more research on that.

Kyler has referred to Petzing an offensive “genius.”

JG calls Petzing a great “teacher” and crystal-clear communicator.

When asked if he was surprised to see Petzing get head coaching interview requests, JG said, “the people that know —- know.”

What I believe is extra special about Drew Petzing is his savviness beyond his football years —- under pressure, he doesn’t take the bait, he’s too smart for that —- he remains completely resolute in what he believes in —- he is a patiently determined devotee to his football and coaching philosophies.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who once opined, “to be great is to be misunderstood.”

Look up Cardinals’ fans and see the coach as he truly is —-

Drew Petzing is as punctual, steadfast and bright —-> as a star.

You might want to be one of the people who “know”.