Jonathan Gannon Expected to be Next Cardinals Head Coach
The other shoe dropped on the Eagles’ coaching staff, with Jonathan Gannon finalizing a deal to become the next head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The news comes on the same Tuesday that Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was named the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Gannon, the Eagles' DC for the past two years, talked at one of the Super Bowl media availabilities last week about how terrific Philadelphia owner Jeffrey Lurie is, and how his time in Philly had been his favorite stop in his assistant coaching career.
“I don’t know how this is going to come out,” he said. “There are 32 owners and I worked for six. This isn’t a slight to anybody else that I worked with, or worked for, but it’s really a testament to Mr. Lurie. He is committed to winning and anything he can do for the entire building and the structure to help the players, he is willing to do.
“When you have that type of support and not just financial support, but other things as well, when you have that type of support, typically you can put a good product in place if you have the right people.”
Gannon must feel comfortable with Arizona owner Michael Bidwill because he said support from the very top would be important to him in his job search.
“That’s why when they (people in the interview process) say do you have any questions for us, I’m like, ‘Yeah I do,’” said Gannon. “I have five bullet points, and this is why the Eagles win and it starts at the top, so yeah, I do have questions and I ask them.”
The Eagles were making a push to keep Gannon from following Shane Steichen out the door, per a recent report from SI senior writer Albert Breer.
Steichen, the now-former Eagles offensive coordinator, signed a contract to be the next head coach of the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday, just 48 hours after the Eagles fell to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
The Eagles seemingly have a transition plan in place and it’s likely going to be the elevation of quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, a close friend of Jalen Hurts and his family, to offensive coordinator.
A day after the 38-35 loss, Gannon interviewed to be the head coach of the Cardinals. He was picked over Bengals DC Lou Anarumo and Giants OC Mike Kafka, the other to who were reported to be finalists.
The Eagles apparently didn’t want to lose both coordinators in the same hiring cycle, though there is a good portion of the fan base that would not be against Gannon moving on, judging by social media posts.
But now they have.
Who’s next?
Like the OC job, the Eagles very well could promote from within, perhaps DB coach Dennard Wilson, who Darius Slay talked glowingly about last year in helping him in his career.
Whoever it is will have the support of Lurie, just as Gannon did.
“We’re 2-5 (in 2021), I’m a first-year coordinator, it’s not going great, and he’s the first one in the office to say, ‘Keep trusting yourself, you’re doing a good job, don’t worry about it, keep improving the team, keep learning,’ " Gannon recalled. “There was never a time where he was like, ‘God, I don’t know, man, I don’t like how this looks, JG. Is this really going to work?’
“There was never any of that. It was, 'I trust you, just keep improving the player, keep improving your game and do you need anything from me?' He's been phenomenal. He really has.”
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Shane Steichen Exits Eagles, Enters Indianapolis to be Colts ...
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
