{"id":762126,"date":"2026-02-19T10:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/762126\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:18:19","slug":"former-texas-dc-pete-kwiatkowski-hired-as-assistant-on-arizona-cardinals-defensive-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/762126\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Texas DC Pete Kwiatkowski hired as assistant on Arizona Cardinals\u2019 defensive staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Kwiatkowski has found his next gig.<\/p>\n

Kwiatkowski, who was fired by Texas after the 2025 season and replaced with Will Muschamp<\/a>, has landed a job as the defensive line coach for the Arizona Cardinals, according to a report from Ian Rapoport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kwiatkowski served at Texas<\/a>\u2019 defensive coordinator from 2021-25. He was a finalist for the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant in college football, in 2024 and helped turn Texas into one of the nation\u2019s best defenses. However, the Longhorns gave up 30-plus points in four of their last five games in 2025, which ultimately led to his dismissal.<\/p>\n

He now lands in Arizona, where Mike LeFleur took over as head coach after the Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon. Kwiatkowski will work under defensive coordinator Nick Rallis, who was retained from the previous coaching staff. The gig with Arizona is Kwiatkowski\u2019s first in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Kwiatkowski has found his next gig. Kwiatkowski, who was fired by Texas after the 2025 season and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1101,1327,1554,7,6,9,384,1078],"class_list":{"0":"post-762126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-colleges","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-steve-sarkisian","18":"tag-texas-longhorns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116096788524016821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762126","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=762126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}