New Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon is wasting no time putting together his first NFL staff. Gannon reached out to the Washington Commanders with a request to interview one of their bright, young offensive coaches.
On Thursday, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that Gannon wants to interview Washington wide receivers coach Drew Terrell for his vacant offensive coordinator position with the Cardinals.
Terrell, 31, began his coaching career in 2014 as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. From 2015-17, Terrell was a graduate assistant at Michigan before landing with the Carolina Panthers under Ron Rivera in 2018 as an offensive quality control assistant.
#Commanders WRs coach Drew Terrell has been requested by the #AZCardinals for their offensive coordinator job, source said. Just 31, he’s highly thought of in NFL circles.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 16, 2023
After two years in that role, Rivera brought Terrell with him to Washington in 2020. After one year as the assistant wide receivers coach, Rivera promoted Terrell to wide receivers coach in 2021. In his three seasons with Washington, Terrell has coached Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Curtis Samuel, Cam Sims and others. He’s widely lauded as an up-and-coming coaching star.
Terrell played wide receiver at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw.
If Gannon hires Terrell, it would be the third coach the Commanders have lost since the end of the season. Washington fired offensive coordinator Scott Turner and lost DBs coach Chris Harris to the Tennessee Titans.
With Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy currently interviewing for Washington’s OC job, he may prefer to bring in some of his own assistants.