{"id":767294,"date":"2026-02-21T18:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T18:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:45:06","slug":"arizona-cardinals-fill-out-coaching-staff-with-notable-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767294\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Cardinals fill out coaching staff with notable trends"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> have, essentially, filled out their coaching staff.<\/p>\n

In January, they hired Mike LaFleur as head coach. Last week, they announced the additions of coordinators Nathaniel Hackett (offense), Nick Rallis (defense) and Michael Ghobrial (special teams).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

And now, they\u2019ve filled out their positional coaching vacancies as well, according to CBS Sports. There are still some minor roles that remain vacant \u2014 namely assistant positional coaches \u2014 but the most important jobs on the staff are accounted for.<\/p>\n

Here is their full list of positional coaches:<\/p>\n

Quarterbacks: Matt Schaub<\/p>\n

Offensive line: Justin Frye<\/p>\n

Running backs: Mike Merritt<\/p>\n

Tight ends: Jake Moreland<\/p>\n

Wide receivers: Tony Sorrentino<\/p>\n

Defensive line: Pete Kwiatkowski<\/p>\n

Outside linebackers: Matt Feeney<\/p>\n

Inside linebackers: Rod Wilson<\/p>\n

Safeties: Cristian Garcia<\/p>\n

Cornerbacks: Zac Etheridge<\/p>\n

1 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Nick Rallis (defensive coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Nick Rallis (defensive coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Nick Rallis (defensive coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Hackett (offensive coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Hackett (offensive coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Hackett (offensive coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

6 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Michael Ghobrial (special teams coordinator) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

7 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Mike LaFleur (head coach) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

8 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Mike LaFleur (head coach) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

9 \/ 9<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals introduce coordinators for 2026 season<\/p>\n

Mike LaFleur (head coach) answers questions during a news conference at the Arizona Cardinals training facility in Tempe on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Of that group, three coaches were on the staff last season: Frye, Feeney and Garcia. With Rallis also returning, it\u2019s a surprising amount of carryover from the team that went 3-14 last season. By contrast, Jonathan Gannon retained just one coach from Kliff Kingsbury\u2019s staff, keeping special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers.<\/p>\n

Frye\u2019s return is perhaps the most unusual move. After his arrival last season, the Cardinals\u2019 offensive line regressed in both pass protection and run blocking. Per Next Gen Stats, they allowed a 38.7% pressure rate, up from 28% a year earlier. In the run game, they generated 1.66 yards before contact per attempt, down from 2.21 in 2024.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Another significant trend was the Cardinals’ hiring from the college ranks. Merritt was the running backs coach at Miami last season, Kwiatkowski was the defensive coordinator at Texas and Etheridge was the cornerbacks coach at Miami.<\/p>\n

As such, the Cardinals have a notably inexperienced staff. Their 10 positional coaches have spent just 27 cumulative seasons coaching at the NFL level. Of those, just nine seasons were spent as positional coaches.<\/p>\n

In other words, the Cardinals\u2019 average positional coach has fewer than one season of experience doing that job in the NFL.<\/p>\n

By contrast, last year\u2019s Super Bowl participants \u2014 the Seahawks and Patriots \u2014 had 119 seasons and 74 seasons, respectively, of NFL positional coaching experience among their position coaches.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Schaub\u2019s hire exemplifies the Cardinals\u2019 strategy. He has strong ties to the LaFleurs. From 2008-09, he was the Texans’ starting quarterback when Matt LaFleur was an offensive assistant. And from 2015-16, he was the Falcons’ backup quarterback when Matt LaFleur was the quarterbacks coach and Mike LaFleur was an offensive assistant. He knows this scheme and knows how Mike LaFleur wants to coach offense.<\/p>\n

But he has also spent just one season as an NFL coach, having worked as a football analyst for the 2023 Falcons. That introduces inherent risk, as the Cardinals learned a year ago, when many of their least experienced coaches struggled in new jobs.<\/p>\n

It is a bet, though, that they were willing to make once again.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals fill out coaching staff for 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Cardinals have, essentially, filled out their coaching staff. In January, they hired Mike LaFleur as head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,4951,26829,7,2254,109168,3031,19677,216,26287,109167,6,26343,90804,104911],"class_list":{"0":"post-767294","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-cardinals","12":"tag-coaching-staff","13":"tag-cornerbacks-coach","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-justin-frye","16":"tag-matt-feeney","17":"tag-matt-lafleur","18":"tag-matt-schaub","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-mike-lafleur","21":"tag-mike-merritt","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-nick-rallis","24":"tag-pete-kwiatkowski","25":"tag-zac-etheridge"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116110109240324819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767294","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=767294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}