The offseason can be a funny time for player status, because if a guy is injured or rehabbing from injury, many coaches -- like coach Jonathan Gannon -- don't like to talk about it. And as Gannon noted Tuesday before the Cardinals began their second week of OTAs, he is under no obligation to talk about it.
But after being asked about right tackle Jonah Williams -- who was expected back on the field Tuesday after working on the side last week -- and rookie defensive tackle Walter Nolen III -- who was working on the side during the open OTA last week that Gannon said was neither injury- or contract-related -- the coach got philosophical in explaining why he doesn't love discussing injuries in the first place.
"There are not a lot of good answers all the time for (the media) from me," Gannon said. "'He's doing great.' What does that mean? He was doing great two days ago but then yesterday didn't have a setback -- I don't want to use that word -- but it's not linear, it doesn't just go great in a rehab. If you remember the first time we got here, the hot topic was Kyler (Murray) coming back from a knee. I've been around guys that have knees. Here's the timetable, here's what he has to do for his position, all that. It's not a linear progression of 'I'm just doing great and I'm on the timeline the doc says and the training room says and this is when I can go out and play football.' It doesn't work like that.
"I trust our process on how we do things. You'll see Jonah out there today, but that's just the step we're taking for return to play. Everybody is different. What you guys see on the practice field, 'Oh maybe he's getting closer' and he might not even be closer than a guy you don't even see out there. That's truthful."
Gannon emphasized the biggest point, that every sidelined player wants to get back to playing as soon as they can.
"So they are doing everything they can to get out there and be healthy and be with their teammates and play football," Gannon said. "I never question that. And they know from our standpoint we're not going to put them out there until they are ready to go 100 percent physically."
The questions are always going to be there regardless of who might get hurt or be hurt. Gannon knows this. But the answers will likely be brief, and now he's explained his reasons why.
