Following the 2025-26 NFL season, the Arizona Cardinals all but cleaned house, firing head coach Jonathan Gannon, offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers and a cast of other assistant coaches. It was clear that after a combined 15-36 record since 2023, something needed to change.
With new hires in coach Mike LaFleur, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial, the Cardinals have the offseason to rebuild their chemistry. While this is the first time all three will be on the same coaching staff together, they are familiar with each other.
Hackett and LaFleur have never coached on the same staff together, but Hackett is no stranger to the LaFleur family tree after serving as the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers alongside coach Matt LaFleur, brother of Mike, from 2019 to 2021.
Two weeks after Mike LaFleur’s introductory press conference at the team’s training facility, he introduced Hackett on Wednesday as a no-brainer decision to guide the Cardinals’ offense next season.
“He’s been very successful,” LaFleur said. “He’s very highly thought of, particularly within our profession. If you guys believe one thing from this press conference, it is literally, I wanted him and nobody else. And he’s here.”
In Hackett’s first three years with Green Bay, he and Matt LaFleur led the Packers to back-to-back NFC Championship appearances in 2019 and 2020, followed by a disappointing loss in the 2021 NFC Divisional Round to the San Francisco 49ers as the top seed in the conference.
With Hackett manning the Packers’ offense, they finished as the top scoring offense in 2020 at 31.8 points per game while finishing fifth in total offense with 389 yards per game. After a brief head coaching stint with the Denver Broncos in 2022 and another offensive coordinator gig with the New York Jets in 2023 and 2024, Hackett returned to Titletown as a defensive analyst, assisting on the 12th-best defense in the league, allowing 311.8 yards per game.
“My experience in Green Bay was absolutely incredible,” Hackett said. “Matt’s one of my dearest friends, and I’m so grateful for all my time I had with him. Now, I’m looking for that same experience with another LaFleur, so I’m going to keep racking up those LaFleurs.”
Hackett experienced immense success as Green Bay’s offensive coordinator, largely aided by future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers. During Hackett’s tenure, Rodgers won back-to-back MVPs in 2020 and 2021 with one of the most potent offenses in the NFL. As it stands, Hackett likely doesn’t know who his quarterback will be yet in Arizona.
Kyler Murray started five games for the Cardinals last season, going 2-3 before suffering a foot injury that eventually landed him on injured reserve for the rest of the year. Murray has been the subject of rampant trade rumors. When asked about Murray’s future with the Cardinals, LaFleur responded in five words: “No time frame on that.”
Jacoby Brissett, the journeyman who took over for Murray in Week 6 and was the signal caller for 12 games as the injury-plagued team went 1-11, is under contract with Arizona for the 2026 season. Despite the dismal record, Brissett had a career year statistically, setting personal records in passing yards (3.366) and touchdown passes (23).
“I’m confident to say it’s probably the hardest position to play in sports,” Hackett said. “I think we can never give enough credit to anybody that has ever had an opportunity to step on the field and be able to play that position.
“For all the coaches, it’s about supporting that position, because when that position plays well, you’re going to have a good football team.”
During Hackett’s inaugural year with the Jets, Ghobrial was in his second and final season with the team as an assistant special teams coordinator before joining the New York Giants as the special teams coordinator in 2024 and 2025. Before Hackett arrived in New York, Mike LaFleur served as the Jets’ offensive coordinator for the 2021-22 season, eventually departing for the same position with the Los Angeles Rams. While LaFleur and Ghobrial only spent one season on the Jets coaching staff together, their connection was rekindled when the two touched down in Arizona.
“It was really cool to get to know him there,” Ghobrial said. “When we kind of broke off when I went to the Giants and he went to the Rams, you still see people at the combine and at different venues, and you get an opportunity to talk ball again. I’ve always had tremendous respect for Mike. I always felt that he had the ability to be an elite football coach because he understands how to unify offense, defense and special teams.”
Under Ghobrial’s operation, the Giants had the fifth-best kickoff corps in the NFL, averaging 27.7 yards per return, highlighted by a 95-yard kickoff return touchdown from cornerback Deonte Banks against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Giants also had the 11th-most accurate field goal unit at 88.5%, but their 87.5% mark on extra points was the worst in the league. The Cardinals were one of eight teams not to miss a single extra point attempt last year, going a perfect 36-for-36.
“I was blown away,” LaFleur said, referencing Ghobrial’s energy as a coach. “As a coordinator, you’re not sitting in those special teams meetings. I didn’t see much of his coaching until I got on the grass. He’s active and out there coaching his butt off. These guys bought into it, and for us to have that opportunity to grab him coming out of New York was huge for us.”
While Ghobrial has spent the last half-decade with New York teams, which play outdoors at MetLife Stadium, his unit with the Cardinals possesses a much better advantage playing in the domed enclosure of State Farm Stadium. With just 10 stadiums in the NFL boasting a roof, Ghobrial’s experience with outdoor weather conditions will aid in the Cardinals’ road trips when they aren’t in their weather-free coliseum.
“Being in MetLife Stadium isn’t the easiest place to perform from a specialist perspective,” Ghobrial said. “There are certain things that arise when you’re in weather games. That process of learning that over my five years with the Jets and Giants is invaluable, because you will play on the road.”
While the trio of newcomers establish their familiarization process for the coming weeks, defensive coordinator Nick Rallis provides stability in Arizona’s coaching room. Entering his fourth year overseeing the Cardinals’ defense, Rallis has yet to push them into the top half of the NFL’s defenses. Rallis joined Arizona’s staff at the same time as Gannon, who served as the head coach from 2023 to 2025.
With Gannon a defensive-minded coach compared to the offensive-focused LaFleur, who spent three seasons under Sean McVay with the Rams, Rallis has the opportunity to reach untapped heights with a defensive unit that has not been within the top-10 ranks since 2017.
“I’m the resource for everyone who’s new walking into the building,” Rallis said. “I’m not much of an expert on the offensive side, but whatever people have questions on, it’s cool to be that resource for whoever needs it.”
As LaFleur eases into his first head coaching job, Hackett’s stand-alone 2022 season as Denver’s head coach brought him lessons he can share. With the pre-established continuity the two have along with connections among other coaches, the Cardinals hope they are on the right track to initiating a new culture in the desert.
“I think you never understand what it’s going to be until you’re in that chair,” Hackett said. “For Mike, there’s going to be some things that are going to come up that you never would have thought.
“From my standpoint, it’s going to be great to be able to try to warn him for some of those things that might show up, and then you have a head start on them.”
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