Breaking down if Jonathan Gannon is on the hot seat or not in 2023
By Sion Fawkes
The 2022 Arizona Cardinals season was a disaster, and former head coach Kliff Kingsbury went from a man who received a contract extension to stay in the desert to a man who saw himself receiving his walking papers in January. Four years before Kingsbury’s arrival, Steve Wilks headed up the Redbirds and he was one-and-done following an equally bad 2018 season.
Enter Jonathan Gannon, another young coach whose two coordinators are even younger than he is, and special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers isn’t much older, as he will turn 45 in December. Since Gannon arrived, he’s gone out of his way to instill discipline in his players with his high standards and expectations that would rival former head coach Tom Coughlin’s.
So, is there any chance that Gannon, at any point in 2023, ends up on the hot seat? To be frank, Gannon would need to see little progress from his team from Week 1 until Week 18 for his seat to even grow remotely hot.
It would take a complete meltdown to put Jonathan Gannon on the hot seat
We know that almost everyone believes the Arizona Cardinals will be a terrible football team in 2023, and maybe they will be. But finishing in the realm of 2-15 or 3-14 won’t make Gannon’s seat hotter if his players show immense progress between September and January.
If it’s say, a Matt Eberflus situation, where the team hardly wins anything but they enjoy steady progression throughout, then almost everyone in the NFL universe will be singing Gannon’s praises. Eberflus’ Chicago Bears finished the 2022 season 0-11 after a 3-4 start, and they lost by over three possessions nearly a half-dozen times, but none of that matters if, in such a tumultuous season, your best players improved, like quarterback Justin Fields.
So if Kyler Murray returns and plays like he belongs in offensive coordinator Drew Petzing’s offense and the young Cardinals take a few major steps forward in 2023, Gannon’s seat will remain cool throughout the season, though everyone, from owner Michael Bidwill to the fan base, will demand improvement in 2024.
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(Information provided by Pro-Football-Reference)