The Detroit Lions’ hiring of former Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing as their next OC—while not official yet—caught many fans and analysts off guard when news broke on Monday afternoon. Although he reportedly interviewed with the team last week, per Dave Birkett, that news didn’t leak to the public, so his name was not on most fans’ radar. Therefore, he wasn’t the subject of much research done regarding the Lions’ vacancy. Given that he also has no direct ties to coach Dan Campbell, he didn’t come across in many lists of potential candidates for the job.
So if you’re looking to cram as much knowledge about Petzing as possible, you’ve come to the right place. Below is a smattering of reactions from NFL analysts, reporters, former players, and coaches who have worked under him, and other analysts of the Lions’ hiring to get to know the newest Lions coach.
Former co-workers
Petzing worked closely with now-Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski. They worked together for six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. Then, when Stefanski head-managed the Browns, he hired Petzing as their new tight ends coach in 2020. Here’s what he had to say at the time:
“I think he’s one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around. I say that because he coached defense in college, he’s moved to the offensive side of the ball, been in the running backs room, the wide receivers room, the quarterbacks room. I think that type of breadth of experience is really important as you’re developing as a young coach. I think anybody who has been around him sees somebody that has a great knowledge of the game.”
And here’s former Vikings wide receiver Jarius Wright—who was coached directly by Petzing—talking about the coach in a great profile from The Athletic in 2023:
“He’s very, very intelligent. If you give him a school book, he would make all A’s. You would think that wouldn’t translate so much to football. But if you gave him any test to know any play, any position on offense, he would know it, every single thing about it. And that was as an assistant. We knew at some point he was going to make it and be an OC.”
Expert, analysts reaction to Lions hiring of Drew Petzing
Here’s a bunch of scattered thoughts from various experts on Twitter:
And one more for the Mike McDaniel fans out there:
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