Cardinals’ Jonathan Gannon isn’t concerned with inexperience on young staff

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon sat behind a table with a microphone in front of him trying to find the right words.

He was trying to recall a quote he likes about youth that was fitting for the situation, considering sitting to Gannon’s left was his pick to be the Cardinals defensive coordinator, Nick Rallis, who is 29.

Along with 35-year-old offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, Rallis and the 40-year-old Gannon make the Cardinals the only team in the NFL with a head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator to be 40 or younger, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The last time that happened was in 2020 when the Los Angeles Rams had 34-year-old head coach Sean McVay, 35-year-old offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell and 38-year-old defensive coordinator Brandon Staley.

As Gannon tried to find the right phrase, Rallis jumped in.

“Experience is not synonymous with knowledge,” he told his new boss.

Gannon, Rallis and Petzing are all taking on new roles for the first time. But age seems just to be a number to Gannon, who became a coordinator at 38. Of the 14 new assistants he hired to join him with the Cardinals, eight are in their 30s. The youngest are a pair of 31-year-olds: passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach Drew Terrell and linebackers coach Sam Siefkes. Six are in their 40s.

“I’m really not worried about their age,” Gannon said. “I’m worried about if they can serve the players and get the job done as it relates to what we need to do as an organization and [making] the Arizona Cardinals win — and that’s what I’m doing.”

Gannon got the job over 56-year-old Lou Anarumo, the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator, and the youth revolution in Arizona was on. But Gannon contends that he didn’t set out to hire a young staff.

He wanted what he called the “right people with the right capacity and the right character.”

Rallis surprised Gannon during his interview by answering questions with thoughts and ideas the two never discussed while they coached together the last two years with the Philadelphia Eagles. Rallis, who was the Eagles linebackers coach for the past two seasons, also didn’t hesitate to tell Gannon during the interview what the worst thing he did was as Eagles defensive coordinator (though they didn’t share what that was with reporters).

Gannon has experience being part of a young staff. The Eagles had the youngest head coach-offensive coordinator-defensive coordinator trio in the NFL last season, with an average age of 39.7 years old, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Rallis, a part of that staff, hasn’t thought much about his quick ascent to a coordinator.

After playing linebacker at the University of Minnesota, he began his coaching career in 2017 as a quality control coach at Wake Forest. Six years later, he’s an NFL coordinator.

“I’m very focused on what do I have to do today to get better and put our defense in a position to be successful,” Rallis said. “So, I can’t say I’ve really had time to reflect on that per se, but I am very grateful that this opportunity came when it did without a question, but I try to be where my feet are every day.”

That’s not to say he’s not flattered, especially since Arizona wasn’t the only team courting him.

“It is very cool,” he said.

Petzing’s path to a coordinator role wasn’t as quick as Rallis’ but swift nonetheless. He was named the Minnesota Vikings receivers coach at 31 after three years as an assistant receivers and assistant quarterbacks coach.

Like his head coach, age is just a number to Petzing.

“It’s about your knowledge, your capacity, your desire to make players better regardless of whether you’re 25 or 50 or 55,” Petzing said. “So, I wouldn’t expect it to be drastically different than any other staff with good, motivated coaches who want to go out and win.”

The Cardinals having a young staff isn’t necessarily an advantage or disadvantage, Rallis said. Regardless of age, a coach has to always be acquiring more knowledge or adapting to the game or connecting to players — or all three.

In the end, though, their ages won’t matter.

“Experience is valuable, there’s no doubt about it,” Petzing said. “But at the end of the day, I have to be good at my job. If I’m good at it, my age doesn’t matter. And if I’m bad at it, my age doesn’t matter.

“So, I think that’s gonna kind of be the focus is, ‘Hey, I gotta be good at what I do. We have to be collectively good at what we do.’ And hopefully I think we are.”