Jonathan Gannon’s vision for the 2025 Arizona Cardinals

Jonathan Gannon’s vision for the 2025 Arizona Cardinals

Joining us right now as we are here from Cardinals headquarters out in Tempe. OTAAS are underway and it is great to catch up with the head coach of the Cardinals, Jonathan Ganon here on the Burns and Gamble show. He does his weekly things with us Mondays during the football season, but we got him here in the offseason, too. How you doing, coach? I’m excellent. I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Good news is we we we’ve uh we’ve talked about a a future replacement for me and somebody wants to step right in and take that job right there. We’re good. Good. And you might have to school me up for like 32 years before I can get on the mic. But I think you’ll be just fine. I think you might be rolling solo for a long time before I can get prepped up, ready to go up speed. Seriously, the in the the door could not be more open for you come for you to come in and co-host a show with me. One day, one week, one month, one year, one lifetime, dude. Whatever you want. You got a good personality. You be good at this stuff. I’m not I’m not made for TV and radio. No. Not good-looking, bad voice. Like, it just doesn’t work. You guys got good voices. Has it stopped him? I’m good looking and I have a good voice. So, it does work. It does work. You’re like, “Check, check.” Want to talk some football? Let’s talk some football, man. Uh voluntary. Voluntaries. How’s the turnout? Good. Really good. Yeah. We got some guys in and out. Um that I told the media today, I said, they know it’s voluntary. They know what they need to do to get ready to play. They know that they’re all competing for their roles. Um and the communication has been great. So, it’s uh really pleased with where we’re at right now. Um, and everybody’s working hard, man. What’s the difference between this and like training camp? What do you hope to accomplish in these sessions? You know, I think we’re just like this is really to me a stepping stone stone going into training camp. So, you know, we evaluate everything. Obviously, we’re looking for guys to improve, make mistakes, fix their mistakes, get better, develop routines, get, you know, um, I would say 101, 2011 with our systems and how we do things. But 301, 401, the M’s class really starts in in uh training camp and you’re really getting ramping up competing for your role. Roles start to get defined, getting ready to go play a game. But um but right now, I’m I’m really pleased with where we’re at. It’s just one day on the grass. But it was good for you. And I was in on your media session earlier. If a guy’s not going to be here, it’s just kind of a just let me know you’re not going to be here. Correct. mostly. I mean, with I mean, you got I mean, I I always say like, uh, obviously I I want everybody here, but, you know, life does happen. Um, guys are in different stages of where they’re at. Um, and I trust everybody to do what’s best for them as it relates to being the best they can be for the team come training camp. You’ve got a lot of guys who have been here a while. You’ve got a lot of guys who have not been here a while. Does everybody start one level, same spot moving forward or other guy like in terms of how you teach, what’s your coaching? Like does everything ground zero start from the beginning or are you starting guys somewhere later on? It’s kind of the cool thing about coaching now we start ground zero. That’s a great point. Like and certain guys, you know, you are always if you’re if I always say about like position coaches, like you have really elite mental guys and you got guys that are maybe not behind, just haven’t heard it this and that. And you got to coach to everybody in the room. So that elite guy is getting things because if you just coach to this level with a guy that’s never heard anything, this guy’s not getting any better. So you got to kind of feel the room where it’s at. Um you got to have a little bit of schwatt, which doesn’t mean how I use the phrase. I think it means joy of life. What I mean is like instincts. Um, you got to have some instincts when you’re coaching in the room to make sure that everybody is progressing. Um, and but everybody’s at different stages of their career. Their learning curves are all different. But we start day one ground zero. Hey, this is how we do things from a team standpoint from an off from a unit all three phases from um the to the position rooms. It all starts from ground zero and we give everybody everything. When you look at what you may change offensively, defensively, year by year, is it minimal? Is it do you change a lot? Your offensive playbook, your defensive schemes, how much do you change in the offseason? It changes. It does, you know, and I think it it’s predicated on who you have. Um, you know, who who you lining up with and then who you’re playing, you know, but you know, that’s why I love the off season. Um because we got a couple new coaches from college and I think they were like wideeyed with the amount of time that they have to that they are afforded to study and study and learn and grow and poke holes in things and brainstorm and be creative and then we take it all together. The coordinators kind of take it all together and we got brainstorming meetings, we got decision-making meetings, all that stuff. But I think that you you never it’s not since we’ve been here. Here’s the three-phase. Here’s the playbooks here. That’s that’s what it is. We are not like that. We try to adapt and adjust and make it fit our guys. That’s unique to us. And then the second piece of that is is when your game planning is is what’s unique to the opponent you’re playing. So that’s how we do things here. And I think it honestly it keeps the players engaged, you know, because it’s not now certain things they hear multiple times from me and from the coordinators, but there’s there’s some new we put some new sauce on everything. You have been steadfast in your belief that Kyler Murray’s an elite quarterback. We’ve been waiting seven, eight years to try to get him over the hump, get him that first playoff win that he doesn’t have. What does he need to do differently? I outside of the surroundings and the team being better and all of that stuff. I get that. What What What jump do you want to see him make? I think play to his level consistently. Y that’s what I would say. Um and because when he plays to his level, it’s elite. I I firmly believe that believes that. No, I I think it is enough when he plays to his level. I think what I’m looking for him of 17 games plus however many more is can you play at that level all the time. And it takes physical stamina, it takes mental stamina, it takes competitive stamina, I call it, which he has all that. So I I he has another go at it this year and I want to see it. And where is he? How how close is he? Is he Is he missing it by three, four, five, six games? I think he’s pretty close. You think he’s really close to being I do consistent week in week out. I do. Jonathan Ganon is our guest here on the Burns and Gambo show uh for OTAAS along those lines looking at your roster from the outside looking in. A lot of year one guys going into year two and you’ve talked a lot about making that jump and the leap that guys are going to make. Are you on that scale? Are they all ready to make that jump? I mean, are they all are are there different guys who are closer to making the bigger jump than and you don’t need to name names unless you want to, but you know what I mean? Like are they all at the same spot in their in their curve or are they in different locations? They’re in That’s a good question. They’re in different locations, all of them. Um because they’re all have a different first year, you know what I mean? But I think that the continuity in all three phases and then the the ability to take what they did last year, learn and grow from it to take the next steps that are needed for them to become the players that they want to be to hit their ceiling. I would say I think they’re all right there. Um, and and opport when opportunity knocks, you got to seize it. You know what I mean? Because everybody’s going to be a D-Rob’s going to be different than Trey Benson’s going to be different than Zay Weaver is going to be different from Tip. You know, they all they all have different roles on the team. But when that opportunity comes, you got you got to seize it. And and I think our guys are excited about that and ready to take the jump based off of your roster. Are there guys that you need to be more ready to make that jump into year two? Yeah, I think all of them. Okay. I think we need all of them to make that jump. And and why I say that is is if you have a jersey on game day, you you have to serve a purpose and you have to help the team win. So, uh what I’m talking it doesn’t matter, you know, Marvin playing 65 plays, Max Melton playing, you know, a game, Max Melton playing, let’s call it 35 a game. Like, if he’s going to play more, he’s got to be ready to take the jump. If D- Rob’s gonna play more, if Zay Weaver, if Tip’s G, you know, all those guys, right, the year I’m listing off the guys, Isaiah Adams, you know, probably he’s competing to be a full-time start at guard, not just plugandplay for like he’s got to make the jump if we want to go where we want to go. So, I’m counting on all of them and they need to all of them. I’m not sure what the uh future was for Shawn Murphy Bunting, even this year with you guys, but without him, I do know you got a very, very young quarterback room. Uh I think everybody’s under the age of 25. A lot of talent there, though. I mean, Max is going to be great. I really do. I like Max. Do you need to go out and get a veteran wide receiver? Would you like to have some more experience in that room? Yeah, I you know, honestly, Gambo, no. Uh, we’ll turn over every stone though to help our team. I feel really good about where that room is at with the guys that are coming back and the new guys added. Um, you know, that there I I’ve never been afraid to play young guys that are a little more inexperienced than other guys. um you know is does experience help you? Yes, it does. You know what I mean? But the way to get experience is time on task on the job. And what you see is if guys are try truly trying to maximize themselves as football players that can happen very quickly. And just because they’re only a year in or two years in or three years in doesn’t mean that they can’t take a huge jump because they’re getting clock. Cooper Deene with Philly landed in a great situation. veteran defense, great pass rush, really helped him have a good year. How much will the additions you guys have made on that front seven help your quarterbacks and safeties? It’ll help. It’ll help. They go hand in hand. Rush and cover go hand in hand. So, if you can cover people up, put color on color, the rush has a chance to get there. If the rush can beat their guys and win one-on- ones, then the corners don’t have to, the DBs don’t have to cover as long. So, they really go hand in hand. You need all three levels of the defense to play highquality football for you if you’re going to be an elite defense. This is what you need. We had a real good feeling you were going to get one of those top two free agents out of Philly. Ended up with Sweat. Yeah. Tell me what you liked about him. Tell me when when did you know you were going to get him. Uh I think when Monty called me and said, “We got Sweat.” Oh, no. Come on. You know what I mean? No, I swear. Like that that you free agency is like I think like people I I don’t know how people think it goes. I don’t know about that. But like you literally do not know who you’re going to get until they say I’m committed and they sign a deal. Did you have a good feeling? I didn’t have anything. You didn’t have any feeling? Any feeling? I kind of What did you love about I mean I think he can affect the passer and he plays the run extremely well. He’s very smart team first guy. He’s tough as nails and I think he’s got good ball in him. A lot of good ball in him. Um and what he’s shown he he fits our style, our brand of ball which is cool. Uh, I know the person that he is obviously being with for two years with him and I think he’s going to help the entire team and the entire defense. Along those lines with free agency, I’m just curious. It looked like the defensive line room was done and set and you were good and here comes Kais Campbell. Yeah. Tell me about that moment. You got the call from Monty. You found out he was coming back. Yeah, we, you know, he was on our radar for a while and we had talked about him and didn’t, and it was kind of one of those guys that we didn’t know he was going to be available. Yeah. Yeah. And when he was available, we talked about the pros and cons of of adding him. And there was just there’s too many pros not to do it, you know what I mean? And and just the obviously the person that he is. He’s already been here. A lot of guys have a history with him. Um going against him last year that the first thing I looked at is you look at a guy that’s a little bit older, 18 years in the league. I said, “Let’s see. Let’s see what he did against us. Like, can he still play?” You know what I mean? And and it was like, geez, this guy’s can still play. like this guy’s like train wrecking the game kind of like sign him up, you know what I mean? So, and there was a lot of people that wanted him. So, we did a really Monty and his staff did a really good job to sign him up and he’s going to help us a lot. Do you want your name before or after mine when we do the show together? Totally up to you. So, you want it to be the Burns and show. Yeah, I’m like you’re Batman. It’s the Burns and Gambo show. The Burns and Ganon show. Oh, it rolls right. He’s the driver. He drives. You’ll be the I mean, you you will add all the personality to the show. I’m just going to be the boring. I get us in and out of the break. That’s what I do. I’m really good at all. You guys are a good tag team. That’d be tough shoes to step into, man. It’s like taking after taking over after like a a legend. Like, it’s hard to do, man. We’ll switch for a day. I’ll not want that job. And you do the show one day. Well, I’m not a legend, so it’d be easier for you, but it would be hard for me. Okay. All right. So, we’ll catch up with you during training camp. Yes. And then we’ll talk. Give me the playlist. I’ll give you five songs. It’ll be jamming out. Five great songs. Shan Ganon, our guest of the Burns and Gam Show. Thanks, coach. Good luck this year. All right, as a reminder, a limited number of season and individual tickets are currently on sale for Cardinals home games. So, for more information, please visit acardinals.com/tick. Thanks for watching Burns and Gambo. Click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never miss a video from Arizona Sports.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon joins Burns & Gambo to discuss OTAs, Kyler Murray and his vision for the 2025 season.

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