“The Arizona Cardinals are expected to hire University of Miami defensive pass game coordinator Zac Etheridge — who was a safety and team captain on Auburn’s 2010 national championship team — as their cornerbacks coach,” Schefter wrote on Twitter/X. It’s the first NFL job for Etheridge.
Etheridge coached at Miami for one season as the defensive pass game coordinator and cornerbacks coach. Prior to that, he spent one season at Houston as the DBs coach.
An Auburn alum where he played safety from 2007-11, winning a national title in 2010, Etheridge began his coaching career as a GA at Penn State in 2012. He had numerous assistant stops at Georgia Tech, Western Carolina, Louisiana, Houston, Auburn and Miami until being hired by the Cardinals.
Mike LaFleur, brother of Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, is finalizing a five-year deal with Arizona. He will replace Jonathan Gannon, fired after the 2025 season. With LaFleur in place, all 10 NFL head coach vacancies were filled. Etheridge is the latest piece to his staff.
LaFleur, 38, got his start in coaching as an offensive assistant for Elmhurst in 2009. An offensive intern for the Cleveland Browns in 2014, LaFleur quickly rose through the NFL coaching ranks. In 2017, he became passing game coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers under Kyle Shanahan, a role he held through the 2020 season.
In 2021, then 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh became head coach of the New York Jets. LaFleur followed him to New York, serving as the team’s offensive coordinator. Both sides parted ways after two seasons. LaFleur found a lifeline with McVay, who brought him on as offensive coordinator in 2023.
Though he didn’t call plays in Los Angeles, LaFleur got the chance to work alongside and learn under arguably the game’s most innovative play-caller in McVay. That proved to be appealing for Arizona, a job that will be no easy undertaking.
