When the Detroit Lions hired former Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator, the question on most fans' minds was, simply, "Why?"
The Cardinals finished 3-13 last season, and many of their fans celebrated his departure. For a Lions team looking to get back on track and return to Super Bowl contention, why Petzing as opposed to someone like Mike McDaniel or Mike Kafka, the latter of whom was later reportedly hired by the Lions, anyway?
For the first time, Petzing had the opportunity to speak to fans when he joined Pride of Detroit's Midweek Mailbag, answering questions about his background, his coaching philosophy, and what he brings to the table.
At just past the seven-minute mark of the stream, Petzing was asked what set him apart from other OC candidates. Petzing declined to make assumptions, as he wasn't in the interview room with them. He instead discussed what he brings to the table, including his confidence and his experience:
"It’s my background in a lot of different rooms. I was a receivers coach, I was a tight end coach, I was a quarterback coach. And one of the key points of being an offensive coordinator is you got to be in charge of everything, and you have to hold people accountable. And I think it helps having a diverse background on the offensive side of the ball to be able to do that, because I’ve had to coach the details of how to block, you know, wide zone on the front side with a tight end, or how to release first press as a receiver. Where the quarterback’s eyes and where his feet should be in the quarterback room."
Before becoming an offensive coordinator with the Cardinals, Petzing spent time across the league coaching quarterbacks, wide receivers, and tight ends with franchises like the Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns. Even going as far back as his one season at Yale in 2012, he also coached outside linebackers.
Petzing will have an embarrassment of riches with players like WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, running back Jahmyr Gibbs, and TE Sam LaPorta, along with one of the game's better QBs in Jared Goff running the show. It's a great opportunity for him to show his expertise across those positions and to bring back the offense to the well-oiled machine it had been in previous seasons.
Petzing's three years as an OC matters, and it makes him an upgrade over John Morton
That range of experience, on top of three seasons as an OC, highly likely drew Lions head coach Dan Campbell to Petzing. By comparison, former OC John Morton only had one season as an OC in the NFL, in 2017 with the New York Jets. While Morton did coach WRs and TEs, he never coached QBs, specifically, although he was a passing game coordinator in the past.
Petzing may have only been in elementary school when Morton got his first NFL coaching gig, but having more years of experience as an OC has its value, especially when those years were consecutive and all in the modern game, as opposed to two years with a seven-year gap in-between like Morton.
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Petzing explained why having that OC experience, and enough of a leash to do so for three years, matters:
"And then the other part of calling plays for three years, you start to figure out why you’re doing things, how to highlight talent that you do or don’t have. And I think that’s something that hopefully people were able to see throughout my three years there in Arizona. And I’m hoping I’m getting better every single game and every year I’m doing it."
The Cardinals may not have been good, but Petzing was given opportunities to learn and grow in the role. He's had the chances to make adjustments during the season and in the offseason, build relationships with players, and make mistakes.
He's spent three years studying defenses across the league, strategizing against them, and managing personnel. He can clearly iterate what he likes and doesn't based on his experience as an OC and moving up the totem pole.
Sometimes, coaches just do better elsewhere. Campbell himself is a testament to that. That could be because they have more talent to work with, more faith from the higher-ups, or because they did fail. They had the time to evaluate what went wrong and grow from it.
For Petzing, he's confident that the experience he brings and his growth in the OC role will speak for itself, and it's obvious Campbell and the Lions agree.