So your team hired Drew Petzing

As a Cardinals fan really into Xs and Os, I'm here to tell you why I think your team made a slam dunk hire. You'll hear a lot of noise about your new OC from Cardinals fans – that he sucks, he doesn't know how to use players correctly, that he doesn't know offense. I think they're all wrong. And if I can't convince you of that, I can at least give you some insight as to what you're getting with Drew Petzing. Also gotta mention, I called this shit in advance.

Note about AI: I always get accused of writing with AI any time I write a post like this. I'm not fuckin' using AI. I have never used AI for a Reddit post, not once. Run my shit through an AI detector if you don't believe me. I have a degree in writing, AI and I have been trained on the same shit. But I'm not using AI.

An innovator of 13 personnel

Sean McVay gets a whole lot of credit for implementing a scheme that uses 13-personnel a whole lot, and getting explosive passing plays out of them. The idea is simple – defenses match 12 with a big nickel personnel nowadays, but still match 13 with base. And three linebackers just leaves you susceptible in the pass game, even if opposing offenses go heavy – modern tight ends are too fast and athletic for a base defense to hold up. It may surprise you to learn – Drew Petzing was doing this first. Last season, the Cardinals ran 13 personnel at the second highest rate in the NFL, second only to the Steelers. And unlike the Steelers, who were awful at it, the Drew Petzing offense ranked first in EPA when in 13 personnel.

In fact, of all meaningful personnel groupings (10% of team snaps or greater) Petzing's passing offense out of 13 was the second best group in the league, with an astronomical 0.56 EPA per play. Only the Bucs' 21 personnel was better. It's hard to overstate how impressive that is. The Cardinals ran 13 personnel more than 30 other teams, and were the very best at it. It's a copycat league, and scheme is stolen, not invented. Petzing gave McVay a first-hand look at how effective offenses can be passing out of heavy personnel. Petzing absolutely destroyed the Rams in 2024 with 12 and 13 personnel. It's no surprise why McVay would go on to use these looks the following season.

Here's a big touchdown play. The Rams come out in base, matching the Cardinals three tight ends. 87, the blocking, big boy tight end lines up as the sole outside receiver. The Rams are running a quarters coverage. The ball is not going to the offense's right, but the Rams have a dropping corner and a safety to that side. It makes the left side completely outleveraged. On the left, you have a sail concept. Every team runs Sail, every defense practices guarding Sail. What makes it work is how you dress it up, and calling it at the right time. 2nd and 8 where the Rams want to keep a shell over the offense but in base personnel is makes this work. With the weak side defenders occupied by a single blocking tight end, you have two defensive backs against a McBride deep out and a Marvin Harrison Jr go ball. The linebackers are a non-factor. They're occupied by the shallow route, and they're not quick enough to disrupt the verticality of McBride's route. All the QB has to do is read the strong side safety. The safety I have circled jumps on the out route, meaning MHJ has a one-on-one in the endzone with a step on his man. Six.

Here's another example of how Petzing schemes up 13. Coming into this game, the Cardinals ranked 1st in passing EPA vs. base defense, while the Bears defense ranked first in defensive EPA in base. It was a strength vs. strength matchup, and the Cardinals blew the Bears out. What made 13 so effective for the Cardinals was the variety of play action Petzing ran. Petzing, coming from the Kubiak-Stefanski tree, is a master of play action, perfect for Jared Goff. In this play, you have TE Elijah Higgins, running a intermediate crosser. He gets wide open because the LB that's supposed to disrupt his route is completely bamboozled. A Sam linebacker's key in the run game is the opposite side guard. The right guard here pulls across the formation, which makes #57 hellbent on replacing his DE who's about to eat the block. The other two LBs bite on the run fake as well. To me, this demonstrates such a thorough understanding of offense. Where a linebacker's keys are, how they'll react to a pulling guard, and how to get linebackers stepping up to fill the run. And what you get is a wide open receiver.

The run game

With Drew Petzing, you get a lot of familiar looks that most every team runs. Sail, flood, levels, mesh. But he's very very good at mixing them up and calling them at the right time to exploit the defense he's up against. He's particularly good at running them all out of the same formation, the same formation that a lot of run plays come from. It's a well-disguised system. The crux of it is playing a lot of tight ends tight to the formation, forcing defenses to condense as they respect the threat of the run, and exploiting the space they leave behind. So naturally, none of that is possible without a good run game.

Petzing calls a very diverse run game. He majors in the body-on-body, downhill gap scheme kind of stuff that rewards a strong, patient runner. He loves to pull a guard. He'll do this at every opportunity. Notice how similar this run looks to play-action of the play above. Because the backers are slow to trigger on this run, LT Paris Johnson Jr. has the chance to throw his guy to the ground and still get a block on the middle linebacker. It's pretty easy to imagine Penei Sewell thriving at this role. The success of this 1Q play perfectly disguises the previous 4Q play. The run punishes the LBs for not triggering fast enough, the play-action punishes them for overcompensating and triggering too quickly.

Here's a much longer post I wrote about the diverse gap scheme Petzing gets into. It's all pretty sound stuff and springs all kinds of big plays. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the fun whams and split blocks he calls with his tight ends. It's a tough defense to play as a D-lineman. You think you're unblocked, and then boom, you're in the dirt. Watch #87 here.. It doesn't always work, but Petzing is willing to put all these weird blocks on tape that'll get defenses overthinking. Here's one where McBride puts in a really weak block that gets the play blown up. Not a good play, but it will serve to disguise a route later in the game when McBride runs across the formation.

Last season, the Cardinals run game ranked 5th in EPA/rush. 6th in overall success rate. 4th in early down success rate, early down EPA/play, and early down EPA/rush. Last season Drew Petzing called what was inarguably a top 5 run game. With journeymen at LG and C and backups at RG and RT. The only big money player on the O-line was Jonah Williams at RT, who suffered a season ending injury in Week 1.

2025 and beyond

The offense took a big ol' shit in 2025, that part is undeniable. But I truly don't think the playcalling was anywhere near the biggest culprit, or even bad. By far the biggest problem was the front office. The GM brought in ZERO offensive players in the draft and free agency. Every pick and dime was spent on defensive players. Petzing was dealt a raw deal. Both the RG and RT coming back from season ending injuries were clearly old and washed.

The lack of reinforcements reared its ugly head when the franchise LT went on IR, the journeyman LG missed time for personal reasons (child nearly stillborn), James Conner, Trey Benson, Emari Demarcado, Bam Knight all got injured at one point or another. Throw in Kyler Murray who had one of the highest sack rates in the league while throwing deep less than almost every other QB (an issue that was mysteriously solved when backup Jacoby Brissett started playing – clearly not the result of playcalling). This offense was unworkable.

TL;DR:

I think it's important to remember that only last year, Drew Petzing called a top 10 offense with a top 5 run game. That his 13 personnel passing game has been studied all around the NFL. He's done it before and he can do it again. I think Drew Petzing is a really good hire. As someone that has actually studied this man's playcalling.