National Outlet: Cardinals Coach is on Hot Seat

In case you were scouring the internet for your daily dose of delusion, look no further.

According to Pro Football Focus' Bradley Locker, Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon will be on the hot seat for the 2025 season.

Locker's article contains some names that make sense, with coaches like Mike McDaniel, Brian Daboll and Zac Taylor present — among others.

A coach being on the hot seat generally has to do with underperformance on a talented roster. Many of the names present in the article were coaches of teams in such a quandary.

It seems quite unusual to put Gannon on this list now, as the Cardinals are finally — in year three of the regime — equipped with a roster capable of playing at a contending level defensively.

Why is Jonathan Gannon on Hot Seat?

Here's what Locker wrote about Gannon's job status:

"Gannon, like his former Eagles co-coordinator Steichen, enters his third season at the helm without much to show for it. But unlike Steichen, things don’t feel quite as dire in Arizona.

"Gannon has mustered only a 12-22 cumulative record with the Cardinals, and his defensive background hasn’t extrapolated. Arizona has ranked 32nd and 27th in defensive EPA per play during Gannon’s first two years, respectively. The team also faces questions about the long-term future of Kyler Murray (82.1 PFF overall grade), who has fluctuated between MVP candidate and question mark.

"Arizona’s roster has been extremely lackluster throughout Gannon’s tenure, which is why it’s hard to fully blame him for the team’s performance. A much-needed infusion of talent was added this offseason via Josh Sweat (70.0 PFF overall grade), Calais Campbell (85.9 PFF run-defense grade), Walter Nolen (88.9 PFF overall grade) and Will Johnson (76.7 PFF coverage grade).

"The improved roster should mean a more competitive team, and Gannon needs to assert that the Cardinals can battle both divisional and NFC powerhouses in the near future. If Arizona finishes below .500 for a third straight season, it wouldn’t be shocking if Gannon were fired, even if progress is displayed. After all, owner Michael Bidwill canned Kliff Kingsbury in his fourth season despite finishing 11-6 the year before."

Why it Makes No Sense

On the surface level, to someone who has not paid a moment's worth of attention to the Cardinals since Kingsbury was fired after the 2022 season, Locker's statement makes logical sense.

But Kingsbury was fired after an utter breakdown from a 10-2 mid-season record in 2021 into a playoff blowout loss and a 4-13 record the next year. In no way is Gannon's situation similar, as he took over a barely-playable 2023 roster and doubled that win total despite major personnel issues in 2024.

The goal, of course, is for the Cardinals to contend, not rebuild forever. But one almost has to look at 2023 and 2024 as the reset years, with 2025 being the first real year Gannon will have to truly perform.

In that matter, Locker is not far off. The Cardinals will be under immense pressure in the 2025 season to perform. The time is now to contend for a playoff spot, and there will be little excuse for underperformance.

However, the suggestion that Gannon would be the fall guy in that situation is simply out of touch. Gannon is beloved by his players, and it's been obvious to educated observers that he and defensive coordinator Nick Rallis have done more with less from a talent perspective defensively.

Granted, there's no suggestion that Gannon can get away with anything, without fear of repercussions. But the former Eagles DC was brought in for a more specific purpose than just throwing things at the wall and praying for a better record.

Gannon - along with GM Monti Ossenfort - has changed the culture of this Cardinals team entirely. Players work hard and fight for the man in the headset. Arizona has risen from an embarrassment to a team worth keeping an eye on in a matter of two seasons — largely due in part to the coaching staff.

If the Cardinals underperform in all facets and finish with a worse record than 2024, that will be a letdown, no doubt. But owner Michael Bidwill appears to be in lockstep with his GM and head coach.

A coach being on the "hot seat" is much more closely linked to doing less with more than simply not winning enough games. There's nothing that suggests Bidwill, Ossenfort or the Cardinals' players are unsatisfied with Gannon.

In fact, in a report card filled with failing grades, Arizona's head coach was the lone "A," according to the NFL Players' Association Report Card.

The NFL is a business, yes, and winning is the sought-after profit of said business. The Cardinals will be under pressure to win without question in 2025, and must at least show tangible strides on both sides of the ball.

At the end of the day, no one can truly posit that Gannon is immune to a potential firing. Perhaps that would be the repercussion of a major 2025 letdown.

But barring a complete breakdown of locker room dynamics, or obvious, gross incompetency by Gannon, to suggest Arizona's most-loved coach since Bruce Arians' 2016 retirement is just a few tough breaks away from hitting the open job market is nothing short of asinine.

Gannon may not be perfect, and he has something to prove, but the Cardinals' head coach undoubtedly is in a much more stable position than PFF appears to suggest.

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