New Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon revealed Sunday that he turned down a massive raise to stay on with the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles as their defensive coordinator.
The Eagles had a fantastic year in 2022. After a very solid showing in 2021 when they went 9-8, they took a massive leap forward this season by finishing with the best record in the NFC (14-3) and making it all the way to Super Bowl LVII. Their success was a complete team effort with both sides of the ball improving in a major way.
It is unsurprising then that teams around the NFL came after their top coordinators to be their new head coaches and bring some of that winning pedigree to their franchises. Offensive coordinator Shane Steichen ended up with the top coaching job in Indianapolis and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon is headed to Arizona.
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However, in the case of Gannon, it seems his efforts in turning the Eagles’ defense into a beast in 2022 actually earned him an offer from Philadelphia that would have paid him more money than most individuals get to be head coaches.
New Arizona Cardinals HC details Eagles making one last bid to keep him
During the 2022 regular season, the Philadelphia Eagles defense gave up the second least total yards, was the best against the pass, only gave up just over 20 points a game, and made history with 70 sacks. that’s why it is no surprise that Philly hoped to maintain that for another Super Bowl run in 2023, and Gannon revealed a final bid to hold on to him during a conversation with NFL insider Peter King Sunday.
“I loved Philly. I love Mr. Lurie [owner Jeffrey Lurie]. I love [general manager] Howie Roseman. I love [head coac] Nick Sirianni. They came back and they were like, here’s a new offer. It’s gonna pay you more than being a head coach. That’s cool and I loved it there but I wanted to be a head coach and I was excited about this because of [Arizona Cardinals owner] Mr. Bidwell — Michael, as he would say — [general manager] Monti Ossenfort, and Kyler [Murray].”
– Jonathan Gannon
Coordinators are as important as ever, and just like retaining key parts of a winning roster is extremely difficult in the NFL today, the same could be said about members of a winning coaching staff. It is sensible for the Eagles to try and retain a massive part of what made them so good in 2022 because there are no guarantees his replacement will have the same sort of success.