It looks like the Eagles have a second hole to fill on their defensive staff: Linebackers coach Nick Rallis is reportedly headed to Arizona to join former Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon’s staff as his defensive coordinator.
Per multiple reports, including on the Cardinals’ own website, Rallis will be the DC while Gannon is hiring Browns QB coach Drew Petzing as his offensive coordinator.
Rallis, at 29, would become the youngest coordinator in the league, and is just five years into a NFL coaching career that started with the Vikings in 2018. He was a defensive quality control coach for three seasons there, adding assistant linebackers coach to his resume in 2020, and then spent the last two years under Gannon as his linebackers coach.
"I don't think about too much as far as where do I lack in my lack of experience," Rallis had said in 2021. “I just try to focus on accumulating as much knowledge as possible."
Rallis, who was reportedly in contention to replace Gannon as Eagles DC and also possible had some interest from new Broncos coach Sean Payton, will replace Vance Joseph, who was officially let go last week by the Cards – and is now also reportedly in the running for both the Broncos’ and Eagles’ defensive coordinator jobs.
He is so young that he was actually college teammates at Minnesota with Cardinals tight end Maxx Williams, who Tweeted “So pumped to see this!” after NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero Tweeted a report of Rallis’ hiring.
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