Cardinals Coach Owns Up to Preseason Mistake

With 32 teams, you'll find 32 different approaches to the preseason.

Typically, Gannon and his staff hadn't played starters or top rookies much in 2023/2024 preseason games for the sake of health, though this year was different.

Majority of Arizona's healthy rookies played significant snaps throughout the three-week preseason slate, which was a swift change from Gannon's previous line of thought.

After defeating the Las Vegas Raiders, Gannon offered the following:

"Just honestly (with) all (of) our rookies (it’s) kind of a change that I felt like we needed to make going into this year. That was one of the things in camp, (in) talking with the coordinators and (General Manager) Monti (Ossenfort), (to) get these rookies a little more reps. I'm looking in the past now, so I'm going to get depressed, but probably a mistake by me truthfully (in the) first two years, so we wanted to correct that.”

Many have been critical of Gannon's preseason plan to not previously feature new rookies or starters ahead of the regular season, though at least a portion of that has changed as Gannon enters his third year at the helm.

Starters made a quick appearance in the opening week of play, though none played in either of Arizona's two final preseason games.

“It's going to be some tough decisions ahead, there's no doubt. (The) roster's in good shape, our health is in pretty good shape. What really makes it hard is, and it's a credit to the players and the coaches, is (that) a lot of guys (have) developed," Gannon said.

"You asked me the other day, what are you most pleased about camp, right? Player development. That's what you have to set out to do for a month when you're at it. You have to get better every day as a football player. I think a lot of guys did that. It's good for those guys.”

Arizona's rookies may feel a bit more prepared to touch grass than previous years when the regular season rolls around thanks to the shift in philosophy from Gannon.