What Jonathan Gannon Told Cardinals Ahead of Camp

The Arizona Cardinals coach delivered this message to his players before training camp started.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon addresses the media during a news conference at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on July 24, 2024. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY

GLENDALE -- Training camp for the Arizona Cardinals is officially underway, and while we learned that Budda Baker gave an inspired speech to his teammates, we also learned what head coach Jonathan Gannon told his troops before the team officially hit the grass at State Farm Stadium:

"This is how we're going to win games. This is who we're going to be. This is how we're going to operate on a daily basis. We've got a lot of work to do, and it needs to start ASAP," said Gannon when asked to describe his message to the team.

"You got to keep the main thing, the main thing. ... I want us to be a smart football team that doesn't beat ourselves and I want us to be a physical football team that plays with great effort, great intensity, great violence and let the chips fall where they fall - but that's basically our mode of play."

Effort was perhaps the one thing the 4-13 Cardinals were praised for in Gannon's first year at the helm. Though they failed to win more than a handful of games, they earned the respect of many around the league for their performance for 60 minutes on each Sunday.

New year - same goals for Gannon's Cardinals.

"Be better than we were last year, try to improve every day," said Gannon. "I'm all about trying to get better every day. ... We got to learn how to win football games, that's the expectation."