Arizona Cardinals' Petzing, Rallis cite challenges, fun in first year as coordinators

Nick Rallis has learned this season, his first as an NFL defensive coordinator, that many people reach out to him via text message to congratulate him when the Cardinals win.

When they lose, he knows he's getting two texts.

"It's your wife and your mom," Rallis said. "That stays consistent."

Rallis and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing are wrapping up their first seasons in new positions as top NFL assistants. They're both in their 30s, and described Year 1 with first-year head coach Jonathan Gannon as rewarding because of the people they've worked with.

"You certainly try to learn from everything you do, whether it's the week to week process with the staff in terms of how we put the game plan together, how we operate on the practice field, how we communicate on game day, how we interact with the players," Petzing said. "I think every single day that I've been on this job, I've been able to learn something that's, hopefully, made me a better coach, a better teammate, a better person."

Petzing has leaned on the players and coaches around him in terms of making sure he's asking them the right questions.

"'Is there something you feel like we could do better or communicate better? Or is there something I'm missing?' And I think I've gotten great feedback from the players and coaches on that, and certainly tried to take that to heart and make sure that I'm doing the best to be the best I can for this organization," he said.

Both coordinators have had their share of challenges in jobs that weren't exactly going to be walks in the park when they arrived. Injuries have beset both the offense and defense all season, rookies have been pressed into service and forced to learn on the fly, mostly on defense, and the Cardinals made many roster moves this season that brought players who had to adjust to the offensive and defensive schemes quickly to get on the field and contribute.

"That is the NFL. You never have the same guys up for a game, week to week, you know, there's going to be injuries, there's going to be changing, who's active, who's inactive," Rallis said. "So that's part of being adaptable, that you have to be able to know, 'Hey, I want to get to this with these guys. And, you know, what's your backup plan?' ... You have to be able to be flexible with your game planning on a week-to-week basis with the opponent you're playing and who you have available as well."

Petzing has gone from Josh Dobbs to Clayton Tune to Kyler Murray at quarterback, his work validated this past Sunday in the win over the Eagles, when Murray was 25 of 31 for 232 yards and guided the Cardinals to four touchdowns in the second half.

Murray credited his offensive coordinator with making good play calls.

"I certainly appreciate that, you know, I think I would say probably the opposite sentiment," Petzing said. "The plays are the plays, it's the players that make it work. And I think those guys have done a really nice job lately of going out and making plays and putting us in position to win games."

The Cardinals are in a rebuild, and Petzing and Rallis have been in lockstep with Gannon in building a culture and getting players to buy in and bear with a 4-12 record believing that the future is brighter.

"It's been a lot of fun," Petzing said. "This has been a great year. And certainly just the people I've been able to be around, kind of what we've been able to do, who I've been able to work with, it's really been, without trying to get too emotional here, it's been pretty special."

A full season and offseason can only help Petzing and Rallis refine what they've been able to install. And Petzing gets a full offseason with quarterback Kyler Murray on the field, which he didn't have last offseason with Murray coming back from knee surgery.

With Sunday's result and the way Gannon and Petzing have talked about Murray, it seems clear that Murray is indeed in the Cardinals' future plans. Gannon told Arizona Sports 98.7 radio on Tuesday that there is "no doubt" Murray will be in place going forward.

"I'm more convicted than when I got here," Gannon said on the radio.

Rallis won't allow himself to reflect on the season until after the Cardinals' final game this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. But he said he's had a "blast" in his first season running the defense.

"It's been great and smooth and I would thank my staff and the players for that," Rallis said. "I think ultimately what can make things go easier, I shouldn't say it's easy because this job in this league is difficult. But when you have really good players, when you have players with high football character, when you have really good leaders, when you have a staff that's highly intelligent but flexible and wants to keep alignment it makes things just all about ball."

"And so I can't say I was ever really distracted from the job description, which is put the defense in the best position to win games, and I was able to focus on that for the entire season because of the people around me."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Nick Rallis, Drew Petzing look back on professionally rewarding 2023