Jonathan Gannon (Finally) Speaks on Failed Cardinals Tenure

The days of Jonathan Gannon leading the Arizona Cardinals are far gone.

Gannon, fired at the end of the 2025 season in somewhat surprising fashion, eventually picked up a job as the Green Bay Packers' defensive coordinator while the Cardinals hired Mike LaFleur (younger brother of Matt LaFleur, Packers head coach) as his replacement.

The NFL is a small world once you get deeper into the roots of coaching trees and connections, though Gannon hadn't had an opportunity to speak on what happened in Arizona until today, where he met with Packers local media for the first time.

"Grateful for the opportunity," Gannon said (h/t Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports). "Met a lot of great people, formed a lot of good relationships there and learned a lot just with being in that seat. Coming here in this role, you try to take some of those things you learned and apply it as much as you can to your new role."

Ex-Cardinals head coach and current Packers DC Jonathan Gannon when asked about not finding the success he wanted in Arizona and the excitement about getting back to coaching the Xs and Os as a coordinator:

"Grateful for the opportunity. Met a lot of great people, formed a lot…
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) May 4, 2026

Gannon spent three years in Arizona before accumulating a 15-36 record as a head coach. The Cardinals lost their last 11-of-12 games in 2025 before Gannon was fired in what was described as a decision that came down to the very morning he was sent packing.

Now, Gannon can take a step back as a defensive coordinator for one of the league's premier teams, featuring one of the league's premier players in Micah Parsons.

Gannon, during his press conference, says not to expect the defense we saw in Arizona last season.

“It really is the truth when I tell you guys this is going to be a new system this year,” he said (h/t Packers On SI). “It’s the 2026 Green Bay Packers. It’s awesome, to me. It’s fun.”

While Gannon was fired, Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis was ultimately retained for a fourth season. While Rallis was the defensive play-caller, it's unknown exactly how much of a footprint he and Gannon shared when it came to the overall defense and its innerworkings.

"There's a lot of variables to that," Rallis said this offseason when asked why the Cardinals' defense ultimately underperformed.

"The most important ones to me are the controllables for us in the building, and it's layered. There's things that we could do better schematically. There's things that we can do better with our technique. There's ways that we can teach it better. There's ways that we can execute it better. So it's never one thing."

Here's to hoping both Gannon and his understudy learned from their mistakes last season.

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