Pressure Makes Diamonds - Is Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon Ready to Shine?

Gannon isn't a stranger to the big stage - we're talking about a guy who the Cardinals interviewed directly after he coached in a Super Bowl as a defensive coordinator.

But 2025 will be a different tune for Gannon running his own show.

When he first arrived in 2023, he and general manager Monti Ossenfort stripped the roster to its bare bones to start anew. It was by no means a sexy move, but rather the right one to kickstart a rebuild. The Cardinals went 4-13 in Gannon's first season but earned respect around the league along the way for their grit.

That paid dividends in 2024 when they got a fully healthy Kyler Murray, doubling their win total from 4 to 8 and narrowly missing the postseason. The ending was ugly - especially after starting 6-4 with the division lead entering the bye week - but it was an overall successful season given the circumstances.

Which leads us to right here and now in the desert.

The Cardinals haven't won the NFC West since 2015. They haven't been in a playoff game since 2021.

Given how Arizona spent serious capital to improve in free agency/NFL draft over the offseason, a team that almost made the postseason should indeed take that next step.

Drawing this back to Gannon - the job he's done up to this very minute is nothing short of impressive. After numerous coaches passed on the Cardinals following the firing of Kliff Kingsbury, Gannon was the last hire of his coaching cycle but finds himself (arguably) near the top of that list now compared to his peers.

He's earned the respect of the locker room. Guys clearly are willing to go to war for him, and that's evident from the top of the roster down to its bottom. He knows what winning looks like and for as much as "culture" has become a buzzword here in Arizona, that's exactly what he's established.

But we've yet to see Gannon coach a Cardinals team with actual postseason expectations, and that's a completely different weight on a coach when your team is realistically capable of playing past Week 18.

Gannon himself was asked about initially hiring coordinators with no play-calling experience earlier in training camp, and his answer is quite relevant to this conversation:

"I laugh - you talk to a lot of guys, and when the the only knock on a guy is experience, that's typically a good thing. Where my brain goes, if there's no other knock besides, 'but he's never really done it.' If you can't give me any other negatives about people, well nobody's done their job for the first time ever, you know? Think about it. First time you got a new job, you probably never did that job. I think that would always be true, right? It's just like a rookie player. There's a learning curve that has to happen for you to keep getting better and excel."

The only knock on Gannon is his lack of experience.

It feels like if there's anybody capable of getting the Cardinals back into the postseason, it's him. For the numerous reasons stated above, and also for his ability to adapt and make changes as a young head coach learning from his first two years, that rings true.

Gannon's truly a great person. His energy - even sitting just feet from him in a press conference - is contagious. After interviewing him, you easily see why guys buy into what he has to say. And so far it has worked.

No, Gannon isn't on the hot seat entering 2025. If Arizona misses the postseason, barring something catastrophic, he'll be back for a fourth season at the helm.

And there's no ounce of doubt Gannon and his troops are indeed capable of making the playoffs with this current roster (just check our predictions out here). He's proved himself capable every step of the way so far.

Yet this step would be bigger than anything he's done previously since his arrival. Nobody expected much, if anything, from his Cardinals in either of the last two seasons.

That's changed. And if the playoffs aren't in the future, there might be some changes within Gannon's staff or big faces on the roster.

Pressure makes diamonds - is Gannon ready to shine?