The Detroit Lions are set to hire former Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing as their next offensive coordinator, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Petzing, 38, will replace John Morton, who was dismissed after one season in the role following a 9-8 campaign that saw the Lions miss the playoffs for the first time since 2022.
Petzing spent the past three seasons as the Cardinals’ offensive coordinator under Jonathan Gannon, who was fired after the 2025 season. In Detroit, he is expected to take over playcalling duties, as head coach Dan Campbell had handled that role since Week 10, following a narrow 27-24 loss to Minnesota.
The Lions were thorough in their search for an experienced offensive leader, and playcalling was a key part of the job description.
“There has to be leadership, there has to be detail-oriented, there’s got to be command of the room,” general manager Brad Holmes said in a Jan. 8 press conference. “You just have to be able to know that there’s somebody that’s going to dot every ‘I,’ cross every ‘T,’ and make sure that nothing is compromised from a detail standpoint, from standards standpoint, from the start of the game-planning period all the way till the end of the week.”
Detroit’s offense ranked among the NFL leaders in points per game in 2025 at 28.3, despite struggling to find consistency beyond big-play scoring. The team still featured stars like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs, but failed to replicate the league-leading 33.2 points per game the Lions averaged under Ben Johnson in 2024.
Morton, 56, had been brought in to succeed Johnson, who left Detroit to become head coach of the Chicago Bears after a record-setting 15-win season. Petzing is expected to bring a new level of leadership and offensive identity to the team as the Lions look to return to the postseason.
