Before the Cardinals’ second training camp practice, head coach Jonathan Gannon met with the media to discuss the first day. The presser was uploaded to the team’s YouTube channel. Gannon was impressed with the team’s attention to detail on the first day of camp.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“Good retention from OTAs, not too many mental mistakes,” said Gannon. “There’s things we have to improve on but I thought the attention to detail was where it needed to be Day 1.”
In his presser ahead of the first day of camp, Gannon talked about the importance of attention to detail. He said the details mean everything, that they separate the great from the good. For the Cardinals to be a contending club, they will need a lot of great players.
In a follow-up question about their strong retention, the Cardinals head coach admitted they taught a lot of their concepts and plays in OTAs and the process would not be seamless with the two-month break. By installing a lot of their plays in OTAs, they can focus on retouching and revisiting them in training camp expecting the players to know them.
The Cardinals coaching staff set up camp with three things in mind: Health, Development, and Evaluation. While the pace of training camp may differ, Gannon says that the players understand the players know what’s being looked at from an evaluation standpoint.
“They understand the value of the different days as it relates themselves, the unit, and the team. They understand what’s expected. Our kind of standard operating procedure of what I want to see, what the coaches want to see on the field, what we’re looking to get out of it. If something gets out of whack, then all of a sudden it’s like ‘Well, this isn’t what we really want’ and it’s a wasted rep, a wasted period, or even a wasted day. When you bring it to their attention, and you talk in black and white, they respond how you want them to respond. As long as they keep doing that, they’ll be in good shape.”
Gannon noted that every rep is important this time of year, that they can’t waste a minute in this league. Every rep is a learning experience for the players and they have to maximize the ones they’re given as there aren’t many to go around with a roster of 90 players and a limited amount of time to get ready for the season.
Heading into his second year, Gannon and the coaching staff will look to tweak their playbook and play calls on both sides of the ball to find better ways to put their players in positions to succeed. He heavily pushed back on the idea that they simplified things last year, calling it a maturation process from Year 1, 2, and 3. It comes down to learning not only the holdover players, but the offseason acquisitions through free agency and the draft as well, in order to optimize their skill sets towards winning football games.
As a head coach, Gannon has an open door policy with his players. He’s been around coaches who handled these things in different ways, but he prefers establishing connections with the players. With a lot of younger players on the roster, he was asked if there’s a difference in the way he coaches a veteran team vs. a younger team.
“You coach everybody in your own way to make sure you’re trying to develop that particular player. The key to that is knowing your style, knowing how they learn, knowing what they respond to, and adapting your style to that to get the most out of them. I think that’s our job is as coaches.”
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
