PHNX Daily: Jonathan Gannon Fired by Cardinals

👋 GOOD MORNING – One day following the conclusion of the Arizona Cardinals’ season comes the most Black Monday news imaginable. Jonathan Gannon is out as head coach in the Valley.

Wow.

2025 was an ugly year to endure, but the Gannon era is now over, and the search for another new head coach begins.

Let’s break it down!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

The Jonathan Gannon Era is Over

The news that many a Cardinal fan anxiously awaited broke yesterday morning. Jonathan Gannon has been fired as head coach after three seasons, following a historically-bad 3-14 season.

To some, the move was a surprise, while others rejoiced. Somewhere in the middle lies a harsh reality: Jonathan Gannon is beloved and respected by his players, the Cardinals’ organization and many others around the league; at the same time, wins matter more than any of that, and Gannon has not proven he is capable of consistently winning, even with an upgraded roster.

It was clear, as owner Michael Bidwill and GM Monti Ossenfort addressed the Phoenix media yesterday, that neither of them relished sending Gannon packing.

“We’re so appreciative of what [Gannon] put into this organization,” Bidwill said. “He made us better, but I think as you all know, this is a league about wins and losses.”

Ossenfort added that there’s “not a guy that I respect more than JG. … JG is a great man. He’s a great coach.”

But at the end of it all, the Cardinals and their fans had to suffer through an embarrassment of a 2025 season. 14 losses is the most in a season in franchise history. All sides of the ball struggled to put forward a watchable product week in and week out.

And it still felt like Gannon was comfortably safe for most of this past season. Even through some of the uglier times, all the Cardinals had to do was show some fight down the stretch.

Instead, the blowouts piled up. It became impossible to explain away the lack of success by pointing to injuries or bad luck. Arizona was outclassed and outcoached every week. That lands on Gannon, and Bidwill and Ossenfort were forced to make that tough decision.

For the time being, Ossenfort will remain. He’ll head up the search for the Cardinals’ next coach — whoever that may be. We have many long months coming to talk about that, so no, I’m not going to start speculating on who they’ll hire yet, sorry.

So the Cardinals will look to start over now. It (hopefully) won’t be anything like the previous rebuild, which took three agonizing years to somehow end in regression.

“When I look at it, some of the changes that were made with other teams just a year or two years ago, those teams with new coaches from a year or two ago are now in the playoffs playing this weekend,” Bidwill said.

“When I look at what other teams have done, and frankly, historically, we’ve done a quick turnaround in our not-too-distant past. … I hope it’s going to be in the first year, not in the second year.”

I would hope so. This fanbase can’t handle (and doesn’t deserve) multiple more years of hopelessness.

My Take: I genuinely do believe Gannon is both a good coach and a good person. Anyone who’s interacted with him has had positive things to say. I believe players were disappointed by this news (Kyler Murray certainly was). I also think Gannon brought some things to the table that were very valuable to rebuilding the culture and reputation of the franchise.

But bottoming out in year three (without doing a ton of winning in year one or two) simply forced hands. Bidwill and Ossenfort made the only choice they had in the best interest of the franchise, for better or worse.

I can’t say I even look back on the hiring as a mistake. At the time, Gannon looked like the right man for the job, and continued to show signs of proving that fact… until he didn’t.

As adversity hit, Gannon stuck to his guns. He was too loyal to OC Drew Petzing when the offense was clearly broken, too tight-lipped on even the most routine questions, and too rigid to his process.

And when a defensive-minded head coach’s defense is getting blown out every week, changes simply have to be made. I genuinely hope Gannon has success elsewhere, and appreciate his dedication, but it was time to move on.

And now, we wait.

(Quick shameless plug: you can read my full-length article on Gannon’s firing here.)

Quick Hits

Clocked: The Suns fell 100-97 to the Rockets on the road, following some brutal travel luck and a strange game clock malfunction. The Rockets continue to be a thorn in Phoenix’s side this season. Devin Booker led the scoring with 27 points, but it was an overall rough game from the rest of the Suns’ lineup.

Portal Power: The Sun Devils landed one of this year’s top transfer portal wideouts yesterday, as Omarion Miller will be coming over from Colorado. Miller picked up 808 yards and eight touchdowns for the Buffaloes in 2025 despite a brutal overall season for Deion Sanders’ program in Boulder. He’s no Jordyn Tyson replacement, yet, but we’ll just have to wait and see…