The Arizona Cardinals will have at least two vacancies to fill on their defensive staff. A day after they lost linebackers coach Sam Siefkes, who became the defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, they will need to find a new defensive line coach.

Former Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks is joining Aaron Glenn's staff as the New York Jets' defensive coordinator.

Glenn was hired as the next head coach of the Jets earlier this month after a four-year run as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator. The Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh in the middle of last season. Glenn said earlier this week that he will not call defensive plays, so that will presumably fall to Wilks.

Thamel has coached the Cardinals’ linebackers for the last two seasons and spent the previous two with the Minnesota Vikings as defensive quality control coach in 2021 and assistant linebackers coach in 2022.

Most recently, he was the linebackers coach for the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals’ defense ranked highly in several areas in 2024. Before that, Siefkes worked for the Minneso