HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference – 10.1.25 | AZ Cardinals

HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference – 10.1.25 | AZ Cardinals

Okay. Uh, injury front. Trey Benson is gonna go IR to return. He came in Friday. Um, and it’s a it’s a knee. Um, but he should be able to return at some point this year. Um, Drock’s still working through the chest. Uh, he won’t be out there today. We’ll see kind of how the week progresses. Uh, other than that, excited to get back on the grass today. big challenge ahead of us and um play good football on Sunday. Coach, when you have an injury like that and the offense has been starting slow the last couple weeks, how do you overcome that and get the offense to kind of kickstart things early? Never about one guy to me. Uh everyone’s got to do their job at a high level. Got to coach and play good and um real comfortable with the guys that will be assuming the role. Did this happen on that last run of his? I honestly think it happened a little earlier in the game. Um, I didn’t get to the the exact play that had it happened, but I think it actually happened earlier in the game and he kind of played through it and then he came in on Friday. That’s why I didn’t have it for you guys on Thursday after the game, but he came in Friday and it was sore. Do you envision Amari um taking over that threeon roll or a mix of guys? You know, I don’t know. We’ll see how kind of the week goes, but we obviously know we got to pick up that role. Um, but feel good about Bam and Amari and Mike Carter. I’m sure they all they all three of them will play. We haven’t talked a lot about Bam since the end of the preseason obviously, but like what does a guy like that in in the context of what he’s been able to practice up until now? Like what have you seen from him and and does that give you uh enthusiasm for what he might be able to do? Absolutely. you know, there’s a reason we kept him, you know, and um I think he’s been working on his game. He’s playing on fourth down as well. Um but I think he’s a big, strong, explosive guy that can run the rock. So, uh he’ll get his touches. What uh what made you decide to elevate Michael from the from the practice squad and and what do you like about his skill set? Mike Carr can can play football. He’s a good football player. You know, I’ve seen that since we’ve been here. So, um, roster construction, your first part of the question, Teao, and then obviously it made sense for us. And then, um, best thing for the team and, um, I’m excited for him. I really am. How important is his locker room presence? Just you’ve talked about it getting him standing ovation. Just what does it mean to have that? Yeah, he everybody really kind of gets a standing ovation with the when you win the Pat Tman award that gets announced on Saturdays and he was the last one to win it. So, I don’t want to overdo that one. But with talking with Mike um about Mike, he’s he’s a he’s fun to be around, man. He’s got a smile on his face. He’s positive. He he works at his improving his game. He’ll do anything you ask of them. Loves. He’s been a great teammate. Um he’ll he’ll go out and play well. Coach, you talked Monday about Tennessee being better than the record indicates. What do you see now heading into Wednesday practice? just that team knows. I mean, they’re in Denver versus a good football team. It’s a one-sore game in the fourth quarter. Um, you know, Houston, you know, it’s 6 nothing late in the third. They’re on defense. Houston’s backed up. It’s second and 33. Got a chance to get out of that and tie the game. Um, Indie generated some explosive plays and put a bunch of points up on the board. Um, that one, you know, that was got a little bit away from them, I think, in the third. Uh, and the Rams, you know, they’re up in that game in the second half versus the LA Rams. So, you know, say what you want. I I any team I laugh like talk to people around the league and even us like, you know, you’re a couple plays away from your record being significantly different, better or worse. Uh, that’s reality in the NFL. You know, I talked to the team today. It’s not the slight college football, but this is not a 0 and4 college football team that has no chance of winning. Everybody in the NFL has a chance to win every game. Um, they got really good players, really good coaches, and we got to play, like I said, probably our best game to get a win. What have you seen from Jeffrey Simmons? Game wrecker. Game wrecker. I mean, the um the first thing that jumps on the tape is this, for better lack of terms, stamina. He plays a ton. Um, doesn’t really come out of the game. Um, you know, you put four hands on him, he makes a play for a TFL, you know, you put four in the run game, you put forehands on him in a pass game and he sacks a quarterback, like he’s all over the place. They do a good job of deploying him. Um, he’s a big, strong, violent guy. He’s hard to block. So, that’s definitely um a focus of ours. We cannot let him wreck the game. Understanding that, too. He’s going to make his plays. He does it versus everybody, you know, that’s why he’s who he is. Um, but got a high level of respect for him. Uh, he’s a good player. He’s a good player. Nick was saying yesterday he wants to see the defense improve and explo explosive plays, but when you’ve got a defense that is stopping the run well and forcing offenses to be a little more one-dimensional, is there a certain point where it’s okay, you know, they’re going to take a lot of shots, they’re going to hit on some, or is that still not enough of it doesn’t matter if they’re throwing the ball a lot more, we can’t let that happen? I think it that’s a good question, Danny. to me um and Nick I think thinks pretty similar to me. Certain games um how you choose to defend you know you’re going to put your guys in some stressful downs and you got to be okay with some other games um you’re trying to keep them all off the board. Um, so I’m not going to tell you how we’re going to defend this week, but I would say this with explosive plays, I’m okay if the stress of the call, their situation, strength and stress of each call, right? When you calling it, what’s the strength? What’s the stress? Um, if they find the stress for an explosive play, um, sometimes you can live with some of those. If the strength of the call is to take away explosives and they generate explosives, I am not okay with that. Um, and coming out of Seattle, I felt that happened too many times. Um, so that’s always something that we talk about and hang our hat on, uh, because we know that’s a stat that wins. Um, and I do think we have to do a better job of keeping the explosive play battle down as it relates to defense on that side of the ball. So, um, you know, we we we have to do a better job. You can’t have a fiveplay drive that goes 70 yards and they score a touchdown. Like, that’s not good defense. So, and he doesn’t call it accordingly like that. So, I think it’s self-inflicted explosives we got to minimize. That’s a really good question. Go ahead, D. I was going to say when you have a guy like Trey McBride, um, obviously you’re trying to tweak things and make things that are are better and you have a guy like McBride who’s playing pretty well and and does these great things. Do you not worry about him or think about him as much because you know what you’re going to get from him and you focus more on other stuff or is he still do you still think, okay, how can we do different things with him to even upgrade what he’s doing? Yeah, I think about him all the time. He’s one of our premier players. So, uh, he needs to impact the game accordingly. So, yeah, that’s one of the guys that the passing game goes through. Uh, we got to make sure that he’s impacting the game in a positive way. With the running back’s room, when James went down and traced it, you guys kind of just inserted him into into essentially that role and and didn’t have to change a ton about the offense. Do you have to change more things now going down to that that third string of guys? Not a ton to me. Uh we will make some tweaks um no matter who’s back there moving forward, but um it to your guys’ eye probably won’t look a ton different. Hopefully we have some more efficiency and run the ball a little bit better. Um but with saying that uh knowing that the guys that are going to be carrying the ball, their skill set is different than six and 33. uh we got them in put and put them in good we have to put them in good spots that they feel really comfortable and they can execute what’s what’s being asked of them. You’ve been very adamant that you’re a process driven team and head coach and I’m curious what’s the balance between trusting the process and not hitting the panic button like you said last week but also kind of being urgent whenever you need. Yeah, no panic button here. um trust the process, but I I am um very aware of when we have to tweak our process um for results, you know, and that that goes into every, you know, we talk about it kind of daily. Um, when you’re in the NFL, you’re going to go through stretches of games of um, during a game, you know, a twoame block, a three-game block, a half, like here and there. Like, you know, it’s not all going to work and like you want it to. Um, you got to take a crit, you got to look at it with a critical eye and see if you have to tweak some things. You know what I mean? And and that’s that’s the fun of the job, you know, and that’s our that’s our job, my job first is to if we have problems, we got to solve problems, you know, and you can do that a bunch of different ways, but that’s, you know, all 32 teams are probably doing the same thing. Jordan Burch has looked reliable. How have you seen him kind of round out that pass rushing? He’s doing a good job. He’s doing a good job. Um, you know, on first, second, and third down. You know, I’m very pleased with where he’s at. I know he’s working on a couple things. Um, but you see he’s playing a lot of ball for us and playing good football, you know, and and I think he’s, you know, he’s going to keep taking strides to become a better player. Coach, coming off two straight losses, how’s the mental attitude of locker room? Really good shot of adrenaline. Let’s get a win this week, but it starts, you know, really started on Monday and we got to control today. That’s the most important thing, you guys. Um, I’ll give you a little wink wink nod nod. Wait till you see your new room in that new facility. Pretty sweet, huh? Excited to see the news on the facility. I was. Yeah. I mean, when I uh It’s funny like when I uh interviewed way back, I got it seems like ages ago, but that was kind of in the work. So, I I would just say that it’s it’s cool. I know there’s a lot of work and commitment that go into what it’s going to be. Um and I and I did not have to do anything, you know, with it. So, um I didn’t have to get my hands dirty, so to speak. And, uh it’s cool to see the boss execute that and the time and obviously the commitment that he put into that. Um it’s going to be pretty special. So, they were joking around uh when he broke the news, you know, Brewer and Beach and some of those guys probably they’ll they’ll they’ll see it, I’m sure. You said our room’s going to be cool. How do you like your room? Yeah. All I need is a chair and a TV, so I’m pretty easy. I like to think I’m low maintenance. You guys are probably a little more high maintenance than me. Danny, you for sure an espresso machine. If there is not one in there, I’ll buy it for you guys.

HC Jonathan Gannon addresses the media ahead of Week 5 vs the Tennessee Titans.

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