NFC Exec Reveals Strengths/Weaknesses for New Green Bay Packers DC Jonathan Gannon
An anonymous executive weighs in on Jonathan Gannon's adaptable scheme and personnel challenges. Can he help the Green Bay Packers get over the top as the new defensive coordinator?
Video Transcript
But I, I, I tend to believe that some coaches, man, are just meant to be coordinators.
Some coaches- Yeah ... are meant to be coordinators, and maybe Jonathan Gannon's one of those guys.
Yeah.
We've talked about it before.
Some coaches- oh, every coach has their own style, and every coach has their own You know, I, I like to break them down between you have your strategist, your X's and O's type coach, and then your motivational coach.
You know, kind of more the CEO, "Let's keep everybody, let's keep everybody moving."
And, to be a head coach in the NFL, you have to be able to do both.
You have to- but certainly you have something that's a little bit more strong than others.
You know, I'd, I'd say Matt LaFleur is more of your X's and O's guys.
In the division, you know, Dan Campbell, he's a little bit more of your motivator, and, and your, uh- Mm-hmm ... your, your kind of leader, you know, run through the walls for him type guy.
So what I've heard about Gannon so far, and what I've seen, is he probably has more of that X's and O's, analytical, you know, get, get on the, get on the chalkboard and, and breaking that down type stuff.
And, and what I've not seen from him is really the, the rah-rah, you know, we're gonna run through a wall for this guy.
In fact, I've seen some pretty awkward clips of him.
Oh, yeah.
But I don't, I don't really care.
You know, I don't really care.
He, he's not there to- Yeah ... at least in this role, he's gonna be there to run the defense, right?
Mm-hmm.
And I don't need him to be the CEO of the team.
I don't need him doing commercials and all that kind of stuff.
I just need him to run a good defense.
And I completely agree with you that there are just some coaches I mean, Vic Fangio is a great, a great example of that, right?
He's arguably one of the best defensive minds of our time- Mm-hmm ... and he was not that great of a head coach.
And I think Josh McDaniel is another good example with the Patriots.
Yeah.
He was terrible as a head coach, but he's- One of, like, the worst.
Yeah.
A pretty darn good offensive coordinator.
So, there's no shame in it, and I'm not worried about what happened in Arizona, 'cause it doesn't- I don't think that impacts who he can be as a defensive coordinator.
Right, and, and I would say, you know, this isn't This is as obvious as it gets as of, of a statement, but, like, you- I, I, I look more at his time in Philly, where, where they had two years of top 10 defenses- Mm-hmm ... and he was in the Super Bowl.
And yeah, it doesn't go great every week, for, for a defense and for a defensive coach and the staff, but, you know, that, that's a group that was competitive.
Obviously, he had great players, right?
Yeah.
Let's, let's not get it twisted.
You're, you're in Philly, and that was Philly Prime, where they, they had the best defensive line.
They had studs everywhere.
But he deployed them in the right way, and, and, you know, I- we were I was talking about this on another show on our network, on the Roundtable Network, and, talking about coaching hires.
And, like, some of these guys, some of these teams, like, especially when you have a, a, a head coach that is your offensive coordinator, right, as Matt LaFleur is, you can just basically eliminate the defense from your mind- Yeah ... when you bring in a guy like Gannon, right?
He has head coaching experience.
It doesn't have to be good experience, but he knows how to lead a group.
And, like, to the, to the, to the average fan, like, you don't realize that on Sundays, everyone's wearing the same uniform and standing on the sidelines and high-fiving each other, and that's awesome, right?
But during the week, it is two totally different, like, this is two totally different teams, right?
Yeah.
They go to different meeting rooms.
They probably mingle at lunch, but, like, think of your own workspace.
This is the sales team, who doesn't talk to the development team, potentially.
Like, they don't interact- Yeah ... and then on one day, at the end of the week, they come together.
But, like, it is so different, and they, and they run different worlds.
And, like, you're like, "All right, Gannon, you just focus on the defense.
You don't gotta talk to the media.
You don't gotta talk to anybody.
You don't gotta worry about anything, right?
You just dial up game plans and make us the best defense you possibly can."
And, and I think that that part to me, like, really fires me up, man.
It fires me up, because I think he's got a lot of the good, the good tools, in his, in his tool, in his toolbox.
