Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes Reveals Why Drew Petzing Hired

General manager Brad Holmes speaks about recent hires on the Lions offense.

Former Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing walks on the sideline before the game against Commanders | Brent Skeen-Imagn Images

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes has revealed what made new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing stick out from the other nine candidates that were interviewed.

Speaking with the Detroit Free Press at the Senior Bowl down in Mobile, Alabama, the former two-time Executive of the Year discussed how the decision was made to add the former Arizona Cardinals coordinator to the coaching staff.

A total of 10 candidates interviewed for the offensive coordinator vacancy.

"A lot of it is, what I liked about him is that it's not a system. It's what you do you have, what's the personnel that you have," said Holmes. "Like, what can we do? And so that's what I think he showed us in that process is that he can maximize personnel of what's available. So that's real exciting."

Holmes later added, "It was just a ton of impressive candidates, but we got to the end of the week, we kind of went back to like, who's the guy that we all collectively felt like he checked all the boxes for us? And we just kind of went with that, went with the gut, and that's why we made the move."

Detroit only interviewed one internal candidate, opting to go outside of the organization for the next offensive leader.

Passing game coordinator David Shaw was the only candidate that interviewed who was already on Dan Campbell's coaching staff.

Last year, Detroit only interviewed three internal candidates before eventually landing on former Denver Broncos passing game coordinator John Morton.

"But (Petzing) is just very sharp, very bright, just really liked his attention to detail. He was very well recommended, all the vetting that we did. I mean, all the sources couldn't speak highly enough about him," said Holmes. "And just kind of just really liked what his philosophy was behind the offensive football and how he utilized personnel. So, it just, he just checked all the boxes, man. So we were we were excited about him."

Holmes also expressed the organization was thrilled to be able to add a coach with Mike Kafka's pedigree.

Petzing is the fourth offensive coordinator Dan Campbell has hired since he became head coach back in 2021.

Former NFL running back Anthony Lynn also only lasted one season before being dismissed. Ben Johnson was able to parlay his success into an opportunity to become the head coach of the Chicago Bears.