Cardinals keep six assistants, add 11

The Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday announced the retention of six assistant coaches and the addition of 11 others to the coaching staff of new head coach Steve Wilks.

The Cardinals previously announced the hiring of Al Holcomb as defensive coordinator, Mike McCoy as offensive coordinator and Jeff Rodgers as special teams coordinator.

On Wednesday, they announced that quarterbacks coach Byron Leftwich, running backs coach Terry Allen, linebackers coach Larry Foote, wide receivers coach Kevin Garver, assistant offensive line coach Steve Heiden and strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris will be retained from the 2017 staff.

The new assistant coaches include assistant defensive line coach Chris Achuff, offensive line coach Ray Brown, defensive quality control coach Alonso Escalante, assistant defensive backs coach Charlie Harbison, senior assistant defensive line coach Don Johnson, assistant special teams coach Randall McCray, defensive backs coach David Merritt Sr., tight ends coach Jason Michael, offensive quality control coach Troy Rothenbuhler, offensive assistant Cameron Turner and running backs coach Kirby Wilson.

Achuff coached the defensive line at Baylor from 2008 to 2016, while Brown was the Carolina Panthers' offensive line coach the last two seasons.

Escalante spent the last two seasons with the New York Giants as an offensive assistant working with the team's wide receivers, and Harbison was co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Louisiana-Lafayette the last three years.

Johnson was the Chargers' defensive line coach from 2009 through 2015, and McCray spent the last two years as Texas State's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

Merritt was on the Giants' staff the last 14 years and was their secondary coach the last 12 years.

Michael was Tennessee Titans' offensive coordinator in 2014 and 2015 and their quarterbacks coach the last two seasons.

Rothenbuhler spent the last seven seasons (2011-2017) as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Findlay, and Turner was Carolina's assistant quarterbacks coach last season.

Wilson was the Cleveland Browns' running backs coach and running game coordinator the last two years.