The Cowboys will interview former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon on Tuesday, Todd Archer of ESPN reports. They have Eagles passing game coordinator Christian Parker scheduled for an in-person interview on Wednesday.
The team has already interviewed Vikings defensive passing game coordinator Daronte Jones in person.
The Cowboys also have interest in Broncos passing game specialist Jim Leonhard, though his interview will have to wait, with the Broncos still in the postseason.
The Cowboys are seeking to replace Matt Eberflus, who was fired after one season.
The Cardinals fired Gannon last week after three seasons as the team’s head coach. He was 15-36 in his tenure with the team, including a 3-14 record in 2025.
Gannon earned his head coaching job after two seasons as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator. He has also worked for the Falcons, Titans, Vikings and Colts, although his time with the Eagles is his only experience as a defensive coordinator.
Parker has spent the past two seasons in Philadelphia working under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. The Eagles have finished as a top-10 defensive unit against the pass with Parker on staff.
After several college jobs, Parker landed his first role in the NFL with the Packers as a defensive quality control coach in 2019.
After two seasons in Green Bay, Parker joined the Broncos as the defensive backs coach.
The Lions are hiring Drew Petzing as their new offensive coordinator, according to multiple reports.
Petzing served as the Cardinals’ offensive coordinator the past three seasons, with Arizona ranking 24th (2023), 12th (2024) and 23rd (2024) in scoring. They were 19th (2023), 11th (2024) and 19th (2025) in yards.
Petzing does not have ties with Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who replaced John Morton as the team’s offensive play-caller midseason. Petzing, though, coached with Ben Johnson at Boston College, and Petzing served as one of Johnson’s groomsmen, according to Field Yates of ESPN.
Petzing began his NFL coaching career in 2013 with the Browns. He has also worked for the Vikings (2016-19) and Browns (2020-22). He was the Browns’ quarterbacks coach in 2022 before leaving for the Cardinals.
Dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. And, thanks to plenty of the perennially dysfunctional teams, the league is a current dysfunction mess.
The current hiring cycle, which at one point seemed like it could be quieter than usual, has sparked turnover with 10 teams. Nearly one third of the league. Two jobs have been filled; with Monday’s termination of Bills coach Sean McDermott, the number of vacancies is back to eight.
Here’s how one current NFL head coach put it, in a Monday morning unsolicited text message to PFT: “At this very moment, [this is] the worst collective of 32 owners in league history.”
It’s a strong statement, but the proof is, if anywhere, in the pudding. Bad teams stay bad. They think that they can turn it around by firing the current coach and hiring a new one, because for other teams it happens.
But the cycle of hiring and firing and hiring and firing contributes to the situation. When the owner has an itchy trigger finger, the coach spends way too much time looking over his shoulder and wondering whether the next decision that doesn’t pan out will be his last.
There’s no competence test to pass in order to qualify to own a team. The paths remain simple (if not easy): (1) have enough money to buy a team; or (2) get your name in the right spot in the will.
While some of the currently vacant jobs are open for reasons unrelated to membership in the gang that couldn’t own straight, most trace to owners who feel like they need to do something, so they fire the coach. In plenty of cases, three years or less after firing the last one.
Meanwhile, the teams with capable owners will benefit. Rash decisions aren’t made. Patience is displayed.
Aaron Rodgers recently blamed the media for the presence of certain coaches on the “hot seat.” The blame goes to those who don’t know what to do (because they secretly don’t know what they’re doing), so they do the easiest thing — fire the coach.
Even if the coach isn’t the biggest part of the problem. Of course, for the truly dysfunctional franchises, the biggest part of the problem isn’t subject to a pink slip. Because owners can’t be fired for general incompetence when it comes to the on-field performance of the team.
Financially, they’re all performing well. They’re all winning, even when they’re losing. And those who are losing will feel compelled to keep the fans believing that the future will be brighter (or less bleak) by dumping the current coach, and by moving to the next coach in who inevitably will be the next coach out.
Curt Cignetti has engineered a remarkable turnaround as head coach of Indiana, with the program set to play for the CFP national championship on Monday night.
But don’t expect Cignetti to potentially do something similar in the pros.
Asked if he would consider an NFL job on Saturday, Cignetti dismissed the idea.
“I’m not an NFL guy,” Cignetti said, via Brett McMurphy of On3.com. “I made that decision a long time ago. I’ve always been a college football guy.”
Cignetti has been a coach at the college level for decades and he’s won everywhere he’s been, most notably at James Madison from 2019-2023 and now at Indiana over the last two years.
While money can talk, it doesn’t seem like Cignetti has any interest in trying to translate his success to the pros.
Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur has a couple of head coaching interviews lined up for Friday.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that the Cardinals and Raiders will both meet with LaFleur. The interviews will take place virtually.
LaFleur is in his third season as the coordinator for the Rams. He ran the Jets offense for two seasons before joining Sean McVay’s staff and was on Kyle Shanahan’s staff with the 49ers for four seasons before going to the Jets with Robert Saleh.
A win over the Bears on Sunday would delay any second round interviews until the Rams are done playing or until the week between the conference title game or the Super Bowl, but it would also likely help LaFleur’s bid to move up the coaching ladder.
