Cardinals Hire Successful Former Texas Defensive Coordinator

The Arizona Cardinals, while having their coaches speak with reporters this morning, were busy at work filling out the rest of their staff.

According to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport, Arizona is hiring former University of Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski as their new defensive line coach.

The #AZCardinals are hiring former University of Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski as their new defensive line coach, source said. A decorated college coach heads to the NFL. pic.twitter.com/eNRUW8X27J
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 18, 2026

Kwiatkowski spent the last five seasons with Texas running their defense before being fired this offseason and ultimately replaced by Will Muschamp. Kwiatkowski helped Texas reach consecutive College Football Playoff appearances before a down 10-3 season saw the Longhorns miss festivities and changes followed.

Kwiatkowski was rumored to several different big schools included USC and Stanford before ultimately making the jump to the NFL for the first time in his coaching career.

His resume, exclusively only in the college ranks until now, includes:

Boise State DB/OLB/DL coach (1988-96)
Snow Co-DC/DL (1997)
Eastern Washington DL (1998-99)
Montana State DC (2000-05)
Boise State DL (2006-09)
Boise State DC (2010-13)
Washington DC (2014-17)
Washington Co-DC/OLB (2018-19)
Washington DC/OLB (2020)
Texas DC (2021-25)

Kwiatkowski, notably, was Budda Baker's defensive coordinator at Washington.

The Cardinals had to replace their DL coach position after Winston DeLattiboudere III departed for Michigan State after the 2025 season.

It's been a whirlwind for new Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur, who still reportedly needs to find a safeties coach — though the staff is nearing completion.

"Every day in January and early February guys are getting plucked off — but there's so many good coaches out there. So you just kind of go through the process and you lose one," LaFleur told reporters this morning.

"But sometimes when you lose one man, it might be the best thing that ever happened, because you end up finding the next one that is a better fit for us. And you learn some things about some guys that you might not have interviewed."

Kwiatkowski will notably have names such as first-round picks Walter Nolen III and Darius Robinson to work with while Dante Stills, Dalvin Tomlinson and Bilal Nichols are also under contract.

The Cardinals could look to bring in reinforcements through free agency or the draft with bodies such as Calais Campbell, Justin Jones and P.J. Mustipher are hitting the open market as of now.

Kwiatkowski brings decades of experience to Arizona, though it will be intriguing to see how his first taste of coaching in the league goes — especially with a Cardinals defensive line that has promise but needs obvious work and coaching done.