Cardinals Hire New Coach

The Arizona Cardinals brought in a new coach through the Bill Bidwill Coaching Fellowship.

Dec 15, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Detailed view of an Arizona Cardinals helmet at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals have announced the hire of DJ Gillins to their staff via the Bill Bidwill Coaching Fellowship.

More on Gillins' background from the Cardinals' media relations team:

"Gillins is back with the Cardinals after spending training camp with the team last year as part of the Bill Walsh Coaching Fellowship. He worked as the running backs coach at Stony Brook in 2024 after coaching wide receivers for two seasons (2022-23) at Long Island University. Gillins played quarterback and wide receiver collegiately at the Wisconsin (2014-15), Pearl River CC (2016), SMU (2017) and University of Texas-San Antonio (2018). Following his playing career, the 29-year old Gillins worked as a graduate assistant at Utah State (2019), Arkansas (2019-20) and Utah (2021)."

Gillins is just the latest Cardinals coach to come through the program, as the recently promoted Connor Senger and Blaine Gautier also participated.

MORE ON THE BILL BIDWILL COACHING FELLOWSHIP: "The Cardinals established the Bill Bidwill Coaching Fellowship prior to the 2015 season. Gillins is the seventh individual to participate in the program, which is designed to increase diversity and create additional opportunities for coaching experience at the highest level."

MORE ON BILL BIDWILL: "Long-time Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, who passed away in 2019, was at the forefront of providing opportunities to individuals regardless of race or gender. In 2010, he was honored with the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s Paul “Tank” Younger Award for promoting diversity in the NFL. In 1978, Adele Harris became the first African American female executive in the NFL when she was hired as the Cardinals director of community relations. In 1981, Bidwill hired attorney Bob Wallace, making him the first African American to handle contract negotiations for an NFL club. In 2004, the Cardinals became the first NFL team to have an African American general manager/head coach duo in Graves and Dennis Green."

The Cardinals recently announced a slew of other changes to their coaching staff, which you can read more about here.