Cards’ Gannon on NFLPA report card: Improvements already being made

TEMPE — During Jonathan Gannon’s head-coaching interview with the Arizona Cardinals, there was a directive put before him by owner Michael Bidwill:

Between the brain trust of the new head coach and first-year general manager Monti Ossenfort, get a lay of the land and figure out what improvements are needed for an Arizona squad needing a hard reset.

And if they didn’t have at the very least an idea of where to start, they know following the NFLPA’s report cards handed down to the Cardinals and the rest of the NFL more than a week ago.

Arizona’s GPA was less than stellar, with the Cardinals grading out as the second-worst franchise behind five failing grades spanning family treatment to food service and nutrition.

But change has already begun within the walls of the team’s Tempe training facility under the vision of Gannon and Ossenfort.

“I’ve been a month on the job or so, but Michael has been fantastic,” Gannon said Wednesday. “We already have made improvements with what Monti and I thought could help us win, that would help us better serve the players to do some different things. Maybe make a couple adjustments here and there.

“I’m not really concerned with what went on in the past. I’m concerned about how we move forward to help our team win.”

Gannon’s mantra since taking the Cardinals’ head-coaching job has centered around players first.

And that’s exactly how he plans to go about further changes throughout the organization.

The players make the team go. It’s on the coaching staff to put them in the best possible spot to do so while understanding not one size fits all.

“There’s some things that we’re going to look at to try and improve and ultimately, that’s what it comes down to,” Gannon said. “You could like blue, you could like red, but what’s the best color for the player?

“That’s how we’re going to make decisions and that’s how we’ll go about it, but I think our players will appreciate that we’re making those types of decisions with them in mind first. … They’ll be excited about the changes that are coming.”

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