Cardinals adding former Giants coach to staff

It’s a new era in Arizona… again. After the Jonathan Gannon experiment did not go their way, the Arizona Cardinals fired the former defensive coordinator-turned-head coach. In his stead, Arizona hired longtime offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. LaFleur, who is the brother of Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, is hoping to turn the fortunes of Arizona around.

The first order of business for a new head coach is to figure out who his coaching staff is going to be. One of LaFleur’s coaches will be a colleague of his from his Jets days: Michael Ghobrial, who will be the Cardinals’ new special teams coordinator.

“The #AZCardinals are hiring Michael Ghobrial as their new special teams coordinator, sources say,” Ian Rapoport reported. “The former #Giants ST coach also worked with Mike LaFleur when both were with the #Jets.”

Outside of the special teams, LaFleur has retained the defensive coaching staff, including defensive coordinator Nick Rallis. On the offensive side of things, the Cardinals have hired former Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett, who worked with LaFleur’s brother in Green Bay. Despite having Hackett, the younger LaFleur will be calling the plays, a role that he’s excited to do again.

“There’s a tone at which you talk of that quarterback, as well,” LaFleur said. “I really believe that what they’re hearing in that moment … it’s so hard to play quarterback in this league, and obviously he has the harder job as the quarterback compared to the playcaller, but you are in it with him and it’s an aspect of football that I missed a lot. So, [as with] anything else, it’ll be challenging, but it’ll be really fun.”

The Cardinals finished the 2025 season with a 3-14 record, becoming the only NFC West team to not make the postseason. That record included a brutal nine-game losing streak to end the season.

The post Cardinals adding former Giants coach to staff appeared first on ClutchPoints.