Feb. 4, 2026, 5:56 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, now with a new head coach in Mike LaFleur, are busy looking for a defensive coordinator. On Wednesday, among a number of reports of requested interviews, the Cardinalas are looking at a young assistant on Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans’ staff.<\/p>\n According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo<\/a>, the Cardinals have requested an interview with Texans defensive backs coach Dino Vasso.<\/p>\n Vasso has been with the Texans since 2021, first coaching cornerbacks from 2021-2023, and then all the defensive backs the last two seasons.<\/p>\n Houston’s defensive backfield is one of the best in the NFL with players like Derek Stingley Jr., Kamari Lassiter, Jalen Pitre and more.<\/p>\n He is 38 years old.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Prior to his time with the Texans, he was with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> from 2016-2020 as a defensive quality control coach, assistant secondary coach and assistant coordinator on defense.<\/p>\n From 2013-2015, he was a coaching assistant for the Kansas City Chiefs under Andy Reid.<\/p>\n LaFleur has not crossed paths with Vasso on any coaching staff yet, but the Cardinals clearly think the young, up-and-coming coach is worth interviewing.<\/p>\n Who is in the mix for the Cardinals as defensive coordinator?<\/p>\n These names have come up so far:<\/p>\n Dino VassoRams assistant head coach and pass game coordinator Aubrey PleasantNew York Giants outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen<\/p>\n No one has reported it, but Nick Rallis, the Cardinals’ DC for the last three seasons, presumably could be in the mix.<\/p>\n Get more Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from Cards<\/a> Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 4, 2026, 5:56 p.m. MT The Arizona Cardinals, now with a new head coach in Mike LaFleur,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2056],"tags":[95878,7,221,253,2368,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,96679,96723,101571,101059,95896,95888,95895,95906,96191,96008,96071,95884,95883,222,95881],"class_list":["post-730186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","tag-sstsncardinals","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagarizona-cardinals","tag-tagdemeco-ryans","tag-tagderek-stingley-jr","tag-tagjalen-pitre","tag-tagkamari-lassiter","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagphiladelphia-eagles","tag-tagsmg-listicle","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-coaching-training","tag-tagsports-news","tag-texans","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}