{"id":145569,"date":"2026-02-06T02:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145569\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T02:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:44:11","slug":"cardinals-add-miamis-matt-merritt-as-rbs-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145569\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Add Miami&#8217;s Matt Merritt As RBs Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mike LaFleur\u00a0and Nathaniel Hackett\u00a0aren\u2019t wasting any time adding to their new Cardinals staff. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteThamel\/status\/2019532791944278181?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">According to ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel<\/a>, the team has hired Miami running backs coach Matt Merritt for the same role in Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>[<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2026\/02\/cardinals-to-hire-nathaniel-hackett-as-oc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RELATED: Cardinals To Hire Nathaniel Hackett As OC<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Merritt joined the Hurricanes staff ahead of the 2024 season and guided a rushing attack that saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/damien-martinez-1.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_cfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Damien Martinez<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/mark-fletcher-jr-1.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_cfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Fletcher Jr.<\/a> combine for 19 touchdowns. He also got some production from eventual first-overall pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WardCa00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cam Ward<\/a>, who rushed for 204 yards and four touchdowns on 60 carries. Fletcher Jr. took his production to another level in 2025, finishing with 1,192 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/charmar-brown-1.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_cfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CharMar Brown<\/a> added seven scores of his own.<\/p>\n<p>Other than his stint at Miami, Merritt\u2019s stops have included Ohio State, Tennessee, and USF. During his tenure at that latter school, he helped guide a rushing attack that averaged 182.8 yards per game during the 2023 campaign. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/nayquan-wright-1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nay\u2019Quan Wright<\/a> rushed for 797 yards and eight touchdowns, while QB <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/byrum-brown-1.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_cfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Byrum Brown<\/a> joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaniJa02.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jayden Daniels<\/a> as the nation\u2019s only signal callers to throw for at least 3,000 yards while compiling 800-plus rushing yards.<\/p>\n<p>In Arizona, Merritt\u2019s running back corps should be relatively set. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/ConnJa00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">James Conner<\/a> will be leading the depth chart following a lost 2025 campaign, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BensTr01.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trey Benson<\/a> will return as the RB2 following a handful of respectable outings last year. The team also has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/K\/KineCo00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Corey Kiner<\/a> on their offseason roster, while the trio of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DemeEm00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Emari Demercado<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/K\/KnigZo00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Zonovan Knight<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/michael-carter-5.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-05_cfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael Carter<\/a> are all impending free agents.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in Arizona, the Cardinals have requested an interview with Dan Williams for their QB coach job, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CameronWolfe\/status\/2019560535076007963\" rel=\"nofollow\">per Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network<\/a>. Williams has spent the past seven seasons in Kansas City, including the past five coaching <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MahoPa00.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patrick Mahomes<\/a> as the Chiefs assistant QBs coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike LaFleur\u00a0and Nathaniel Hackett\u00a0aren\u2019t wasting any time adding to their new Cardinals staff. According to ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4404,70471,70442,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-145569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-dan-williams-coach","tag-matt-merritt","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}