HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference – 12.03.25 | AZ Cardinals

HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference – 12.03.25 | AZ Cardinals

LJ Kier will uh we will open his window today. He’ll be on a practice field. Um everybody else will kind of see how the week goes. Obviously a really good football team coming in here. Um you know tied for the best record in the NFC. Uh like I talked about really well coached team. They got really good players and they’re playing well. They control the double positive. That’s why they’re nine and three. We got our work cut out for us. Excited about the challenge. Let’s go to work. what we got. Does Trey Benson have a chance to go this week? We’ll see. What does he need to show you to get back to where he was? Maybe we could um be mentally and physically ready to play. How’s Mark doing? Okay, coach, with this Rams team, both sides of the football obviously, but their offense just seems to be clicking on all cylinders. So many great skill position guys. How do you defense that? How do you slow that down? Yeah, I mean I think it starts with really the run game. Um, you know, they got a good old line, a really good scheme. Um, they use, you know, he’s Sean, I think, has done a really good job of adapting this year, doing some different things that he hasn’t done in the past, using his guys the right way. Um, they got good backs and then from there that sets up the, you know, you get Ansy to stop the run and he throws the ball over your head and they score touchdowns. So, we got our work cut out for us, but obviously the quarterback’s playing at a high level. Um, elite arm talent, elite brain, um, with an elite play caller. That’s a recipe to win a lot of games, play good offense, and that’s what they’re doing. So, um, big time challenge. Matthew’s been mentioned in the MVP conversation quite a bit lately. What What makes him so great? Elite arm talent and an elite brain. Everyone talks about his toughness. How do you see that come across? Tough as they come. With your guys record, excuse me, record what it is. Is there ever a thought to to getting some young guys some more opportunities? Getting them some No. Do it the best thing we think to win the game. That’s what we’ll keep doing. When you do get those guys in games for other reasons, what do you learn about a young guy in in a game setting that maybe you don’t learn in a practice setting? Well, they they should it should accelerate their growth one way or the other. Um the biggest form of learning in my opinion are game reps. So, it’s good to see guys play, you know what I mean? Because you don’t you’re you’re right, Teao, you don’t know what it’s you know what it how they’re going to respond and how they’re going to play when the lights are on. Um and it’s it’s all for me. I love to see those guys out there. So, then why not lean more on again? I’m going to try to do what’s best to win the game. Speaking of that, how have you seen Denzel Burke kind of grow throughout the season. He’s done a good job. He really has. I think, um, you know, the snaps that he was kind of playing early in the year, I think he took those and learned from it. Um, at the mini buy, I had a really good talk with him about, you know, where he needs to go with his game, what he needs to improve. At the buy, had another talk with him. He’s a ball junkie, man. He’s in here a lot um early um which I love, but uh he puts a lot of time on task into his craft and he’s played well for us. You know what I mean? I don’t think he’s hit his ceiling, but he’s now playing a lot of reps for us and with reps, he should become better and better. With a guy like Sweat, how do you kind of balance a guy who obviously is one of your better defend defender defensive players, but also you guys have that rotation at outside linebacker and wanting to make sure other guys get in? How do you kind of balance how many snaps you get? Do is there ever a time when you’re thinking let’s let’s get him a lot more snaps or does that not really fit into what your philosophy is at that position? No, I I think um Matt’s done a good job with keeping him where we wanted to keep him, where he thinks he’s his best at um as it relates to us playing well on defense and winning the game. So, I like where the rotation is kind of at. Um obviously, he’s typically in the game on um big time downs, you know. Um and if he’s not, there’s a reason for it, you know what I mean? So, that’s okay, too. But I think Josh is playing really well. coach, back to the Rams, when you have a guy like Dvonte who scored so many touchdowns, do you have to do something special defensively against that? Yeah, but you put two on them and they’re going to run it in. So, you got to live with that, too. But, uh, obviously, I’m not trying to be funny, Craig. You’re right. He scored more touchdowns inside the five than anybody, I think, this year. So, um, obviously a really good player. Um, they deploy him in a way that’s hard to put two on them. Um, and you just with with all great players, you have to have awareness of where they’re located, what they like to do, their skill set as it matches your skill set. Um, and where we, you know, where you need to win on certain routes, you have to win on certain routes. That’s the cool thing about Devonte. I see people are buried outside, you know, in their mind taking away outside outbreakers and he’s winning on outbreakers. It’s like, god dang, man. you know, let’s not lose on an outbreaker. You know, an inbreaker you can live with, but an outbreaker, let’s not lose on that. Great players win. Um, you know, and and that’s what he’s shown over the course of his career and now what he’s doing at this at this this year. To me, when you watch the tape, he find he kind of find the fountain of youth, I think, or the you know, I mean, whatever that phrase is, he looks damn good, you know, and then you pair him with another guy that you can’t cover. Um, that’s a really good route runner, contested catch, run after catch, really smart, use them all different ways. Um, I’m juiced about the challenge. You know, this is a this is a good damn crew. This is a good crew. What will you learn about your quarterback? They can compete and cover the best that are two of the best that are out there. We’re going to learn that quick. Is that the message you give to them in the in the meeting? They know the message. Yeah, absolutely. They know who’s walking in here. you go against a quarterback, right? Theoretically, you’ve seen everything. How much does that influence your game planning, how you call a game against a super veteran quarterback? Well, I mean, you I mean, yeah, I mean, he’s what, 17 years in, you ain’t tricking them. Um, but you do have to affect them. The uh the offensive line overall, with the regression of that unit, are there any sort of like commonalities or or specific things that you see that you guys have not done as well kind of as a group? regression how with the I mean would you agree that the pass protection hasn’t been as good as it was last year and the run blocking based off of what would you say based off I don’t have the exact pressure rates with me right now but it does seem like your quarterback’s under pressure more often creating less push in the run game yeah um I think that it’s always important we always have to find ways to make sure that we move the line of scrimmage in the run game laterally uh and horizontally and keep the quarterback upright Um, and they have a say, too. Um, but I think we’ve had our spots where we’ve done that. Can we be more consistent doing it? Absolutely. Um, but those guys buckle up every every game. They go about their business the right way and they fight their ass off.

HC Jonathan Gannon addresses the media.

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