Eagles Offered Jonathan Gannon Head Coaches Salary To Remain Defensive Coordinator
Jonathan Gannon kept his talents in Arizona, accepting an interview and landing the Cardinals head coaching vacancy after a 38-35 loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
Prior to that matchup, reports circulated that Philadelphia made a late push to retain the defensive coordinator.
Gannon chose the head coaching opportunity and after his first press conference as the new guy in Arizona, he confirmed to Peter King that Philadelphia offered to pay head coaches money to stay with the Eagles.
“I loved Philly. I love Mr. Lurie [owner Jeffrey Lurie]. I love Howie Roseman. I love 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 Mr. Bidwill—Michael, as he would say—[GM] Monti Ossenfort, and Kyler.”
In his first season as defensive coordinator, Gannon’s Eagles’ defense surrendered 5.2 yards per play, tied for the seventh-fewest in the league. The Eagles were tied with the Bears and Panthers for the fifth-fewest takeaways in the NFL with 16.
This season, Gannon’s defense was among the top units in the NFL, finishing No. 2 overall in total defense, No. 1 against the pass, and 8th in the NFL in points allowed but fell apart in the second half of the Super Bowl loss.
Glenn Erby:
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