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Cardinals Hire Rams OC Mike LaFleur As Next Coach

The Cardinals have hired Mike LaFleur as their new coach.
Eva Geitheim|
The Cardinals are planning to make Mike LaFleur their next head coach.
The Cardinals are planning to make Mike LaFleur their next head coach. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Arizona Cardinals

The last NFL head coaching vacancy has been filled.

The Cardinals have hired Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur as their next head coach, the team announced on social media. LaFleur is the brother of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, and is reportedly joining Arizona on a five-year deal, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

"I couldn't be more fired up to become the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and am beyond grateful to Michael [Bidwill] and Monti [Ossenfort] for this opportunity," LaFleur said in a statement. "Having competed against them in the NFC so many times in recent years, I know the type of talent and toughness the team has and cannot wait to get to Arizona to hit the ground running."

The news comes shortly after it was reported that the Raiders intend to work out a deal with Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to become their next head coach. Kubiak met with both the Raiders and Cardinals for interviews on Saturday, and is expected to join the Raiders. He cannot be officially hired until after the Super Bowl.

LaFleur will take over the Cardinals after spending extensive time in the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay system. He has spent the last three years as the Rams offensive coordinator. Before that, he was an assistant coach under Shanahan on the 49ers and Falcons from 2015-2020 and the Jets offensive coordinator from 2021-22.

The Cardinals will nab the offensive coordinator of one of their division rivals with this hiring. LaFleur will replace former head coach Jonathan Gannon, who went 15-36 over his three years in the desert.

The hirings of LaFleur and Kubiak will close out a coaching carousel that saw ten different teams hire new coaches this offseason. While the NFL typically sees six to eight vacancies each year, 10 teams are heading in a different direction at coach, which should lead to significant turnover across the league.

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Eva Geitheim
EVA GEITHEIM

Eva Geitheim is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in December 2024, she wrote for Newsweek, Gymnastics Now and Dodgers Nation. A Bay Area native, she has a bachelor's in communications from UCLA. When not writing, she can be found baking or re-watching Gilmore Girls.

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