Ossenfort: Jonathan Gannon’s big-picture view for Cardinals in focus at camp

GLENDALE — One of the main reasons Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort was drawn to Jonathan Gannon during his hiring process was the soon-to-be head coach’s big picture view on the totality of the football operations.

Whether it was overall communication, strength and conditioning, nutrition, practice setup and tempo, mentality or the good old Xs and Os, Gannon’s vision for the team encompassed it all, according to his GM.

Now, Ossenfort has a front-row seat to what exactly Gannon was selling six months ago.

And it’s been just as advertised more than a week into training camp.

“Jonathan and I talk multiple times a day. His office is right down the hall from mine where we’re staying here for camp,” Ossenfort said Tuesday. “The communication has been great, constantly bouncing things off of each other not just about personnel, but how our processes and our structure is going throughout the organization, and he’s done a phenomenal job. We’re going to continue to grow, all of us, but he’s done a great job.”

For how structured and detailed this year’s training camp has been, it can be lost at times that Gannon is still relatively new to his current role.

But this camp and overall foundation Gannon is building has been years in the making and not just something whipped up on the fly after finally locking down a head-coaching gig.

“As you start coaching and if you want to run a team, you start paying attention to certain things of how you’re setting up training camp,” Gannon said as camp opened last week. “Just talking to some vets that have been different places, I think they appreciate the thought and the work that went in to trying to set this thing up to make themselves the best players they can be.”

And while Gannon now sits at the highest level a coach can have, his mentality and drive from his days as an assistant in Atlanta, Tennessee, Minnesota, Indianapolis and Philadelphia remains.

“Any time someone gets in that seat, you wonder what he’s going to be like when he’s in charge,” offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said. “Give somebody power and you’ll really get to know them. Certainly, I had my belief of who he was going to be and he has not changed at all. He’s the same person he was when we were assistants (in Minnesota from 2014-15) in terms of how he approaches his day, how he interacts with his staff, what he asks from us.

“He’s been a lot of fun to work with and certainly don’t want to let him down in terms of the way we do things.”

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