Cardinals hire Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur as head coach

The Arizona Cardinals have hired Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur as their head coach, the team announced Sunday.

LaFleur, 38, has spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Rams, who led the NFL in points per game, yards per game, yards per play and expected points added per play in 2025. Quarterback Matthew Stafford was named first-team All-Pro and is the favorite to win the league’s MVP Award, and wide receiver Puka Nacua was a unanimous first-team All-Pro.

LaFleur replaces Jonathan Gannon, who was fired after a 15-36 record over three seasons with the Cardinals. The franchise has made the playoffs just six times since relocating to Arizona in 1988, and LaFleur will be its 12th full-time head coach in the desert. None of his predecessors has lasted more than six seasons, and only one (Bruce Arians) left with a winning record.

Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, taken with the first pick of the 2019 NFL Draft and signed to a five-year, $230.5 million extension in 2022, spent most of the 2025 season on the bench. He injured his foot in Week 5, was replaced by veteran Jacoby Brissett and didn’t play again, eventually landing on injured reserve. Determining his future will be an immediate priority for LaFleur and general manager Monti Ossenfort.

In addition, Arizona’s offensive line needs an overhaul, and two of the team’s top young players, cornerback Garrett Williams (Achilles) and defensive tackle Walter Nolen III (knee), suffered injuries in December that could sideline them for significant parts of next season.

The younger brother of Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, Mike has been around some of the sport’s top offensive minds, spending four years with the San Francisco 49ers (mostly as the passing game coordinator) under Kyle Shanahan and the last three seasons under Rams head coach Sean McVay.

In between, he spent two seasons as the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator, but he parted ways with the team after two subpar seasons. He has also worked for the Atlanta Falcons and Cleveland Browns. Before starting his NFL coaching career, LaFleur spent five seasons as an offensive assistant for lower-level colleges.

The Rams offense was in the top 10 in most major offensive categories during LaFleur’s three-year tenure, including fifth in offensive points per game. They beat the Carolina Panthers in the wild-card round this season, then eliminated the Chicago Bears in the divisional round, with Stafford leading them on a game-winning drive in overtime.

What this means for Cardinals, Rams

LaFleur quickly grew to become one of McVay’s most trusted assistants after his hire in 2023. At that time, McVay was looking for fresh ideas that could evolve his offense after many others had adopted copies of it around the league. He, LaFleur and other assistants set about overhauling the Rams’ run game to become much more physical than it had been in previous seasons. They incorporated more gap/inside concepts to pair with McVay’s trademark wide/middle zone scheme, and the restructure has since paid huge dividends, with the Rams back to one of the better rushing teams in the NFL.

LaFleur credits his background as a receivers coach with San Francisco as a big area of career development. As in McVay’s offense, Shanahan asks his 49ers receivers to be versatile in their alignments and also be good blockers in the run and screen game. So much interconnects between run and pass concepts in these offensive systems, and LaFleur has a great schematic understanding of that. His amiable, easy-to-approach nature made him well-liked by coaches and players in L.A.

McVay has frequently looked for external candidates for his coordinator roles, but in this circumstance, he shouldn’t have to look far for his new OC. Nate Scheelhaase, who had interviews this cycle, including for HC, is already in the building as passing game coordinator. — Jourdan Rodrigue, senior NFL writer