They coached together, but against each other, for the last three seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and also were on the same staff prior to that with the Minnesota Vikings for two seasons.
Now, they will face off for real on Sunday when Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis will try to put the brakes on the Lions offense, led by coordinator Drew Petzing.
Petzing said “it’s fun” when questioned about looking forward to the competition in State Farm Stadium. He added, “He's a good buddy of mine, a guy I have a ton of respect for as a coach. So, any chance you get to go against him and match our schemes and match our minds, (it’s) something you get excited about.”
Rallis said there were countless discussions they had during those years in Minnesota
and Arizona.
“I probably had as many conversations with him about football as anybody, and just from that offense perspective to defense perspective,” Rallis said. So, there are definitely many meetings we had just as coordinator meetings and going through situational ball. So, there's a lot of familiarity there.”
As for how the relationship might impact the game, Rallis said, “You take that information in with your game planning, but you also have to be able to kind of figure out what's relevant there. Because he does have new players. Scheme's a little different. Different coaching staff around him. So, you got to be able to filter (things) out, but there's definitely nuances of our history and I'm sure he's got his thoughts from just going head-to-head in practice for three years. But at the end of the day, it's about the players.”
He added, “You see Drew's wrinkles. Whether or not the Lions had that in the past, that might be like, this is something we ran and I like it too, or Drew brought it with him. I think it's a combination of all those things.”
Rallis has a lot of respect for what Petzing is able to do with an offense.
“In the run game, he loves his gaps and his pin poles. In the pass game, he's always had a wide variety of being able to hunt coverages and really attack you in the third level,” Rallis said. “The thing with Drew is he was highly adaptable to the opponent. He wasn't stuck in his ways on having to play anything a certain way. So you got to really take that into consideration and figure out with that mindset, how will he try to attack us because he's so multiple.”
Petzing insists this game isn’t any more meaningful than any other on the schedule.
“Honestly, it's something I think very little about,” he claimed. “To me, it's the next game that we need to win. And that's really where my mind stops. I did have a great time there. I loved it there, personally and professionally, but we’ve got to go out and beat them.”
Despite the way the 2025 season went downhill, Petzing is grateful for the growth he experienced with the Cardinals after being hired by Jonathan Gannon and working with Rallis and other coaches on the staff.
He concluded, “I had a chance to take the next step with them and grow as a coach and grow as a person and grow as a leader. So, invaluable what those guys taught me, what I learned from them, what hopefully I was able to impart on them. It was an amazing three years.”
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Coordinators Nick Rallis and Drew Petzing will butt heads on Sunday
