During his season-ending press conference, Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said he did not know yet if he was going to make changes on his coaching staff.
But after a season in which his team finished under .500, Gannon made clear some kind of moves might come.
"I have to do a better job with everything that we're doing," Gannon said. "Our process, how we structure things, connecting with the players, making sure I hold the players accountable, the coaches accountable, how we evaluate things."
After one season of a staff unchanged, the Cardinals will go into 2025 with significant change.
The Cardinals added Justin Frye, who served as Ohio State's offensive line coach the past few seasons, to replace Klayton Adams, who left to become the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator. The brought in former Cowboys assistant defensive backs coach Cristian Garcia to coach linebackers, after Sam Siefkes left to become defensive coordinator of Virginia Tech. They promoted Connor Senger to pass game specialist after Spencer Whipple departed to coach quarterbacks on the new Jacksonville Jaguars staff.
In addition, Winston DeLattiboudere III was hired to coach the defensive line after doing the same job at the University of Minnesota the past two seasons, while Matt Feeney comes to coach outside linebackers after spending the past three seasons on the staff of the Las Vegas Raiders. Alec Osborn was named a defensive quality control coach after coaching linebackers at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. They help fill the spots after the Cardinals moved on from outside linebackers coach Rob Rodriguez, defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc and assistant defensive line coach William Peagler. LeBlanc landed with Jacksonville with Whipple, as the assistant defensive line coach.
The Cardinals also promoted Blaine Gautier, who had spent the last two seasons on staff through the Bill Bidwill Coaching Fellowship program, to offensive quality control.
| Position | New Coach |
|---|---|
| Offensive Line | Justin Frye |
| Defensive Line | Winston DeLattiboudere III |
| Outside Linebackers | Matt Feeney |
| Linebackers | Cristian Garcia |
| Pass Game Specialist | Conner Senger* |
| Defensive Quality Control | Alec Osborne |
| Offensive Quality Control | Blaine Gautier* |
The changes on the offensive and defensive lines are significant given the Cardinals' emphasis on trench play. DeLattiboudere was a college teammate at Minnesota with Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis. Frye, meanwhile, was Paris Johnson Jr.'s line coach in PJJ's final season in college -- Johnson made clear on social media how happy he was with the hire -- and Ohio State tackle Josh Simmons praised Frye with recent comments.
"Coach Frye is a genius not only at teaching plays but teaching you why the play is being called to a certain look at stuff like that," said Simmons, who is first-round possibility and potential Cardinals consideration.
"I knew coach Frye was gifted at this sort of thing."
Garcia's defensive coordinator in Dallas last season was Mike Zimmer, a mentor and former boss of both Gannon and Rallis. Garcia also coached with passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach Drew Terrell with the Commanders.
