What’s true and what’s untrue about the Detroit Lions’ hiring of Drew Petzing
Let’s just go ahead clear up some of the confusion leading to rumors
The Detroit Lions hired Drew Petzing to be their offensive coordinator on Monday, and there have been a lot of takes flying around that are kind of crazy. Let’s talk about what’s true and what’s not true.
Brad Holmes and Sheila Ford Hamp did not overrule Dan Campbell on hiring Mike McDaniel
This rumor all starts with a wild misreading of this tweet from ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. Some Lions fans are reading this as Campbell liked Mike McDaniel, but Holmes and Ford Hamp overruled him in favor of making the more conservative hire. Because nothing says conservative and playing it safe like hiring the guy from the three-win team.
To keep it short, there is no truth to this. While Holmes, like the GM of every team in the league, has to sign off on the hire, Campbell has as close to full autonomy over his staff as you can get. This was Campbell’s call, and as we know, Campbell and Holmes have been in lockstep on everything.
Darlington is not saying “Campbell liked it, but Holmes and Ford Hamp didn’t.” He’s saying Campbell liked him, but liked Petzing more and felt like it was a better fit.
No other teams had any interest in Petzing
That’s a pretty wild reach considering where things are with coaching searches. Other than a select group of guys, nobody has been interviewing for coordinator jobs right now. Because there are still a large number of teams looking to fill their head coach jobs. Once those are full, offensive coordinator searches will jump into high gear. We’ll never know how many teams were interested in Petzing, because he never got to that point. What we do know is that he’s looked at in the league as a young up-and-coming coach, and last year the Bears went as far as to interview him for their head coach job.
Why was the interview with Petzing not announced?
The Lions had nine total candidates, and the public only knew about six of them. The three that weren’t reported were Petzing, David Shaw, and new Falcons OC Tommy Rees. The important thing to note here is that when you find out about these interviews, this info is usually never coming from a team source. It’s coming from the agent of that coach. In this case, this info wasn’t shared. We might not ever know the reason as to why, but we’re likely to find out later, as we did with John Morton when we learned the Bears tried to hire him and the Broncos wanted him to stay in Denver.
Mike McDaniel turned down the Lions
McDaniel did not turn the Lions. He was never offered a job in Detroit. He never came back for a second interview. The Lions reached out to him, they interviewed him, and chose not to hire him. That’s what happened.
Dan Campbell hired Petzing because he didn’t want to give up calling plays
This is not true. Dan Campbell will not be calling plays in 2026. Petzing will be fully taking over playcalling.
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