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In Meeting Rooms, Jonathan Gannon Wants Cardinals To Understand

Even off the field, Cardinals coach sees competitive nature to learning

The main meeting room for the Cardinals at the Dignity Health Training Center.
The main meeting room for the Cardinals at the Dignity Health Training Center.

Kyler Murray won't be able to work his way through the new offense on the practice field, the obvious result of his ACL rehab.

Learning the new offense of coordinator Drew Petzing will have to come in other ways.

"The meeting room for us will be a full-time job," head coach Jonathan Gannon said. "Even though (Kyler) is not on the field, he will be getting stressed out mentally."

Murray isn't the only one who will have the meeting-room employment, however. Gannon made clear it's a team-wide culture when it comes to embracing those teachable moments. The Cardinals' meetings will be "very interactive," all with the goal to help the performances on game days.

"I'm going to tell the players, I don't want (information) regurgitated and I don't want it memorized," Gannon said. "I want it understood."

That message is already being delivered to a new coaching staff that has quickly filled up the football side of the building.

Actual meetings for players can't begin until early April. The players that have come in to rehab or work out can only have general conversations with coaches at this point.

But that allows Gannon to get his style into place. There are plenty of times when a coach stands at the front of a meeting room and gets nodding heads and an "I understand" from the players in front of them – even if a guy might have a question, unwilling to ask it in the moment.

That's what Gannon wants to avoid. There will be times when a coach puts a player in a "hot spot" in front of their peers, needing to verbalize a concept in real time to make sure it has gotten across.

"We will hold a standard how we do those things in a meeting room," Gannon said, adding "when you understand something you can typically play faster."

For all the time players spend on the field, they spend more time in meeting rooms. Finding a way to maximize that time can only help Gannon's goals for the Cardinals.

"Just because it's not (normally) a competitive environment in the meeting rooms," Gannon said, "our meeting rooms will be pretty competitive."

Images of 2023 Pro Bowl Cheerleader Gabby during her time at the Pro Bowl Games in Las Vegas, NV

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