HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference- 11.7.25 | AZ Cardinals

HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference- 11.7.25 | AZ Cardinals

First off, thoughts and prayers go out to the Dallas Cowboys. Obviously, our condolences. That’s sad. Um, we’re thinking about him. Um, our text back and forth with Shotty and that’s a tough deal. Okay. So, with that, um, onto the game here. Healthwise, um, Will Johnson is not going to make it. Um, M. Wilson is not going to make it and Max Melton is not going to make it. And then I think everybody, you guys will get the report today. I think everybody else and then BJ will not be activated. Um, so we got to have a good day today and then we’re uh traveling tomorrow. Let it rip on Sunday. With uh you you’ve coached so many young defensive backs in your career. when when they come in the league, what’s what what is the the the biggest thing that they have to learn when they get to this league compared to what college is? Is it is the physicalness of the receivers? Is it is there any one particular thing that could be eye opening for these guys that maybe they weren’t ready? That’s a good question, Darren. Um that that would be a real long answer. You know, you know, if I had to say one thing, um, how accurately passes are delivered. That’s what I would say. It doesn’t necessarily, you know, uh, go to them. It goes to like how fast the ball gets on them and how accurate passes are thrown. That’s what I would say. What’s going on with Will Johnson? Uh he’s got like uh I’m not going to get into injury specifics. He’s not healthy enough to play. He’s got like a hip uh contusion glute deal going on. Um you know, we just walked through on Wednesday. Um and he honestly didn’t do as well as I thought. We knew he was sore coming out of the game out of Monday night. Um, so then we had Tuesday and he got treated and then Wednesday, um, he struggled to kind of walk through, so we had to do some digging and he’s got a little bit of a a nick. You guys sorting out who’s going to be wearing the green dock come Sunday? No, Cody will wear it and Keem will be a really good caddy for him. What um I guess what what goes into that for a rookie linebacker to be prepared to step into that role mentally as much as physically? Yeah, you just got to do it. You know, I mean, we train them obviously. That’s why Nick trains all those guys to wear the green dot. Um you know, from the moment we start on the practice field in spring to training camp. Um that’s why we pair them with each other differently, you know, in preseason games and things. you know, we’ve talked about that. Um, but he’s he’s done it in practice. Obviously, he did it to finish the game, which was good, but it it’s a it’s he’s got to handle it and he’s done a good job in practice and, you know, I’m not worried about it, honestly. Um, there’s a lot of guys communicating with him, but he’s got to get the call and then and then give it to everybody, but he’ll be fine. How did he operate with it last night? Uh, well, very well. Very well. Zavan helped him out once. Uh or no that was Mack in that was Mac. We didn’t get a call in one time Z made the call but uh he did well. Denzel was talking about how he knows he’s a rookie so he’s going to get picked on a little bit. Like how do you find that balance between uh you want to be tested but you also want to have that respect of being in that shutdown corner? I mean they throw the ball at the top three shutdown corners in the league. So I don’t really um I don’t know. I think that’s a little bit of a uh inflated misnomer. Um when the ball comes to you, you got to make the play, you know, and then if you don’t make the play, get back in the huddle and make the next one. That’s the psychology I want them to have. Do you envision the uh running back room looking kind of like did last week? Yeah, we’ll see. Um, you know, similar but not the same. Similar but not the same. Similar but different. Maybe a little bit different. Will be the first one out there. Uh I’m not sure of that right now. We hear so often about how division games are. Like seriously, I’m not I haven’t talked to Drew about it yet. Division games tougher just because the familiarity aspect and you’ve already played Seattle once this year. I’m curious with Jacobe being the starter criter last time. How similar and how different is game planning going to be? Well, I mean, coming off a short, you know, that was a short week with no practice. Um, what was that? Week four. Um, it will be different just because of where we’re at in the season and the practice week, even though this was a short week, too, but um not like a Thursday night game, you know. Um, and then I think, you know, we’ve evolved a little bit, you know, when we hit the mini buy after that Seattle game. Um, and then we evolved even then probably a little bit at the buy. So, be a little bit different, but at the end of the day, we got to block, we got to run, we got to catch, we got to throw, uh, we got to play smart with play. Just a really good defense. All the tweaks that you guys made during the buy, were you pleased with how they panned out in the game on Monday? Um, take the result out of it. Yes. Like, I’m not pleased because we won. I’m pleased with that we won, but I’m not that like I was looking for things in practice um and then to show up in the game and I thought we took a jump as a team. Can you give us one or two things now that’s in the past? Uh backside of the run game for the O line. Um pad level at the top of routes for the receivers. um how we’re running shallows with the tight ends like uh running backs one-on-one pass pro, you know, defensive line playing a slip block. Um having our rush angle efficiency become better, greater. Um corners, make sure we’re aligned right when we got go from press to off when they they condense the set. We’re we’re weren’t right. um safeties on snap footwork, linebackers, pattern match, tackling, edge guys, posture at the point of contact. Um trying to think who else. Kicker and punter didn’t really have anything. Quarterback, accelerated vision on threeman concepts. Throw it down the field or get it out of your hand. You know, things like that. Amari was telling us the other day that he wasn’t good in pass. His words in college. Amari said he’s really freaking good now. What goes into kind of becoming good at pass? Yeah. Technique first I would say is want to like I hate to use the word toughness, but you got to stick your face in there and he does. Technique. Um that’s a huge thing. um how you’re blocking certain guys from where you’re located to where you’re making contact to how you’re making contact to the angle that you’re making contact. Um and I would say where it starts with is playing fast and knowing exactly who you have to pick up which I think that honestly is probably the first reason that guys fail out of it. They don’t know when it’s, you know, Mike sort jet fourjet, two jet, sevenman, um, swirl, um, Jupiter, Pluto. Who do I have? Where do my eyes go? What happens if this guy drops? Then I got to transfer my eyes to this guy. All right, these two guys are in the bubble. I have one of the two, but then I got to get to an edge. If there’s edge pressure, like there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot going on. And so it’s not that guys. Most running backs that carry the football in the NFL, in my opinion, are pretty tough because they get hit for a living. So check that box. Technique, if they want to do it and they want to play, they’ll probably get better at the technique. The thing that separates them is their brain. And Amari does a really good job at it. He he not only said he was not good in college, but when we asked him how he got good now, he basically said he wasn’t sure. I guess Autri taught him. I’m just curious is like does that surprise you that somebody would be like okay I think he knows he’s good at it just he doesn’t that’s why he’s out there I mean you know if you think back when he was a rookie he was out there you know um yeah he probably he got coached yeah absolutely you know he got coached up but um and nobody’s perfect you know you know I thought truthfully um you know not to knock any of our other guys but we we missed him in the Green Bay game because they were thinning us out to take chips off their edge rushers. They were ed they were um interior pressuring. So you’re eating the chip now when you bring when you bring interior pressure away from the center slide. That was a good job by Halfley. Um and I didn’t think we we got on the right people. We weren’t as firm as Amari typically is, you know. So why didn’t you guys chip Parsons? Well, we were chipping Parsons until they rip six at you and you can’t chip Parsons. I was looking in the past, but you watch the tape tail. You know what’s going on. Go ahead. Is all that stuff now? You guys are got me hot. All the stuff that you said that that pass needs to watch. Is that all stuff they learn on tape? I’m assuming. Uh yeah, there’s a lot of ways to learn that. The playbook, tape, uh walk through, full speed. There’s a just like how anybody learns um you need to use all the tools available to you, but it’s it’s real. It’s it’s not easy. Marvin mentioned his struggles earlier this year from the first game against Seattle to now. Where has he grown? Where has he improved? Where’s his confidence level now versus I mean, you can ask him. I I think they’re higher. I know they’re higher. Um he’s in my opinion he’s he’s um playing extremely fast, violent and aggressive and he’s making a lot of plays. So he’s only going to continue to get better. You know, I feel about that with every all players. You know, it’s not, you know, premium players, role players, good players, bad players. Typically coaches, teams, like it’s a long season. and you’re going to go through some, you know, some valleys and some peaks and some adversity and you’re going to, you know, some of our guys like to the naked eye, you might not point it out or think about it, but they, you know, certain games you’re not going to play to your level all the time. You know, there are guys that do that. Not many in my opinion. um you know, but it’s just to keep at it and keep fighting, keep battling and trying to keep improve every day, you know, and that’s what he’s done. You uh you mentioned earlier this week you thought it would benefit the team to have clarity at the quarterback position and not have that uncertainty throughout the week. How have you seen that kind of help this week? Um yeah, I just I think you know there there’s a lot of uh communication now with Jacobe because he is the starter um with with how we’re doing things. You know, that’s where I would see that’s where I see my benefit the most. Um and not that Kyler wasn’t doing that, it was just you know, you know, who am I talking to if I’m Marv? You know, um which I understand that. Um, so I think that’s been good. Just the communication piece this week leading up to the game and we got a long way to go. Jacob’s familiarity with the offense and Drew and Izzy is his closest with them that kind of help speed up the process now for him as a starter coming into the I mean, no, I just think it’s sped up the process when he came in here a spring of operating at a high level. Honestly, for people who’ve never been on a sideline in Seattle, can you just talk about how loud and chaotic it can be? It’s loud and chaotic. Um, that’s that’s a good I I think it’s a great venue. I really do. Um, you know, right on the water right there. I think it’s pretty cool. But, uh, yeah, it’s a it’s a you know, it’s it’s one of the better, um, road venues in my opinion. Kind of random a long-winded question, but it seemed like four or five years ago to be a true Super Bowl contender type of team, um, you had to have like a superhuman type of quarterback. And now we’re seeing so many teams across the league have guys that maybe on in their third or fourth stop and and making it work to be that level of of team. Is there something that you’re seeing that is enabling, you know, it seems like almost the offensive system, right? The things pieces around them matter more than they did four or five years ago. Is there something that you’re seeing that is making kind of that recipe um that playbook succeed? I don’t know, man. You you’re more versed than me on that one, Teao. I think uh it’s the ultimate team game. So, the the best teams win and they make the push. You know, need the ball to bounce your way a little bit. You need everyone to start their role, you know, go from there.

HC Jonathan Gannon addresses the media ahead of Week 10 vs the Seahawks.

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