Cardinals Finalize Coaching Staff as Questions Swirl

For better or worse, Arizona Cardinals fans finally know who will be wearing headsets on the sideline this season.

Lower-level assistant coaches and position coaches will continue to trickle in, but the Cardinals have their head coach, and they have their coordinators, merely a week prior to the 2026 NFL Combine in Indianapolis. The coordinator hiring cycle was nearly as lengthy, winding and untelegraphed as the one that netted them head coach Mike LaFleur — but it’s done.

On offense, the Cardinals hired former Broncos head coach and veteran offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. On defense, incumbent coordinator Nick Rallis will be retained. Replacing Jeff Rodgers with the special teams unit is former Giants coordinator Michael Ghobrial.

All three new coaches, alongside LaFleur, caught up with the Arizona media on Wednesday.

Cardinals Hire Nathaniel Hackett as Offensive Coordinator

Hackett’s track record may have led to somewhat of a negative reaction from fans upon his hiring. He was the first coordinator LaFleur brought in. Of course, Hackett is familiar with the LaFleur family, spending three seasons alongside Matt LaFleur in Green Bay from 2019-2021.

A highly-successful Packers offense landed Hackett a head coaching job with the Broncos. But after going 4-11 in his first season as a head coach, Hackett was fired prior to Denver’s season finale.

Of course, he did not call plays for Matt LaFleur and the Packers, and he won’t be calling them in Arizona, either. That duty will go to Mike LaFleur. Instead, Hackett will bring veteran experience and offensive support to the Cardinals’ first-time head coach.

“It’s setting the table, setting the menu, having just great energy around the building, having great communication when I’m doing stuff with the defense, when I’m doing stuff with Monti [Ossenfort], when I’m doing stuff just around the building,” LaFleur said of Hackett’s role.

Hackett is embracing that responsibility fully.

“For me, it’s the ability to help other coaches,” Hackett said. “Help players, help Mike, be a service to all them, and to be able to help them be the best version of themselves. … Through all the experiences that I’ve had up and down, I think that most things that you grow from are… some of the adversity that you go through.

“There’s so many things that you end up doing [as a head coach], and so many different things that come up, good and bad that just you had never foreseen. And you get to find out how you want to react to all those things. So from my standpoint, it’s going to be great to be able to try to warn [LaFleur] for some of those things that might show up and have a head start on.”

Hackett certainly will bring a positive energy to the Cardinals. It quickly became clear why he’s so well-liked in NFL circles, win-loss record notwithstanding.

“I’ve always been somewhat known as an energetic human being,” Hackett said. “And [I’ve learned] no matter what, don’t change. Be yourself, always, always enjoy the moment. Sometimes you got to block out that noise. A lot of people say that. It’s easier said than done. I’ve learned to block out that noise, keep that energy and keep rolling.”

If that all sounds intangible, that’s because it is. That is what Hackett’s role will be: helping with the intangible aspects of coaching — the daily aspects unseen by fans; the decisions that don’t show up as a number on the play sheet or in the box score. He did note his desire for both explosive plays and efficiency, however — two areas in which the Cardinals’ offense lacked in its previous iteration.

Hackett was not a settle or second-choice hire. He was brought in with purpose.

“I wanted him and nobody else, and he’s here,” LaFleur said. “We’re not going to be Green Bay, we’re not gonna be the Rams. We’re not gonna be the Niners. We’re gonna be us, whatever us becomes.”

Cardinals Retain Nick Rallis as Defensive Coordinator

The Cardinals interviewed numerous candidates for their defensive coordinator role, but ultimately decided to retain Rallis, who is still under contract for one more year. To some, that decision appeared to signal a failure on the part of those conducting the search, but it’s easy to forget Arizona’s third-year coordinator was on the rise until the brutal 2025 season.

Rallis’ defense was a top-half unit in passing defense (14th) and scoring defense (15th) in 2024, despite a severe lack of talent present on the roster. They also owned the ninth-best red zone defense, and did not allow a touchdown for three straight home games at one point. With a successful 2025, Rallis was expected to get head coaching interviews.

Instead, the Cardinals plummeted to 27th in total defense, 29th in scoring defense and 25th in red zone defense in 2025. While injuries certainly played a factor, it felt as if the group was not developing nor playing up to its talent level — struggling to get pressures and frequently being picked apart in soft coverage.

Rallis called the aftermath of the 2025 season a “long process of reflection”

He said he was “Trying to find those avenues for growth — for myself and really for this defense — I didn’t know if I was going to be here, but I was still looking at it through that lens. Just finding ways [of] how can I be better at my job? Talking to other people, how can I better serve the coaches, serve the players to allow them to do their job at a high level.”

“[Being retained] means a lot, because I love the players. I know that we can be better than what we we put on tape,” he said.

It won’t be a fresh start, but it will be the one line of consistency for Arizona’s roster. Rallis is familiar with and well-liked by his players. And with no defensive head coach following Jonathan Gannon’s departure, this unit is solely and entirely his. Rallis has much to prove in 2026, but LaFleur offered his vote of confidence in the Cardinals’ 33-year-old playcaller.

“We had very honest and open dialogue and and I like what I heard. He’s a stud, and his best days are totally in front of him, and I know it’s just a great fit for us,” LaFleur said of Rallis.

Cardinals Hire Michael Ghobrial as Special Teams Coordinator

The Cardinals did not own a poor record because of their special teams in 2025, but there was a bit of a drop-off in that area.

PFF ranked Arizona 12th in special teams in 2024, but that fell to 18th in 2025. Tackles were missed, explosive returns were allowed, and kicks sailed wide of the goal posts.

Ghobrial served as the New York Jets’ assistant special teams coordinator from 2021-2023, overlapping with LaFleur for two of those seasons. PFF ranked the Jets second (2021), 14th (2022) and fifth (2023) in the NFL in special teams during that time. He was then hired by New York’s stadium-sharing counterpart, and spent two seasons as the main coordinator for the Giants before joining the Cardinals.

“I feel like I was born to coach football,” Ghobrial said. “I’ve always felt that special teams is the purest form of football. In special teams… you’re doing things that you do on offense and defense,” he said.

“It’s block destruction, it’s block ability, it’s speed to the ball, it’s tackling, it’s all security. All those things show up on offense, all those things show up defensively. Like I said, it’s the purest form of football, so to be able to articulate that to the players, to be able to tell them that, ‘Well, this is what you do defensively as your primary job.’ … that, to me, is one of the coolest moments to be a part of.”

LaFleur said he was “blown away” by Ghobrial’s ability during their shared stint with the Jets.

“He’s just active. He’s out there. He’s coaching his butt off these guys, they buy into it. And you know, for us to have that opportunity to grab him coming out of New York is huge for us.”