Eagles Trying to Turn the Page on Jonathan Gannon Situation

The controversy surrounding the exit of former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon just won't let up.

PHILADELPHIA - Many Philadelphia Eagles fans are in their feelings regarding Jonathan Gannon, the team’s former defensive coordinator who is now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

Gannon hasn’t exactly been the best politician since getting the big chair with the Cardinals and has been perceived as dishonest by Philadelphia fans and some media members who believe the coach’s inartful handling of the entire situation is somehow evidence that Gannon wasn’t fully invested in winning a Super Bowl.

That last narrative is the one that’s a bridge too far for me as if a football lifer who has yet to earn a ring would somehow spend all his time leading up to the Super Bowl worrying about Kyler Murray and his next job instead of finishing the task at hand while standing at the doorstep.

Like all good conspiracies, this story has some grains of truth to it and unusual circumstances to make it easy for the Fox Mulder’s of the world who want to believe.

Even though the main bullet points of this tangled web came before, the crux of the story begins on Feb. 12 in Glendale when Gannon’s defense imploded in the second half against Kansas City, contributing to a heartbreaking 38-35 setback to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.

Had the Eagles made one defensive play like Brandon Graham's strip-sack of Tom Brady late in Super Bowl LII, few would even be paying attention to any of this, at least outside of Phoenix.

The day before Super Bowl LVII is when this reporter first received word that Gannon was likely going to be the next head coach of the Cardinals as long as the two sides agreed on a contract, somewhat interesting wording because that’s rarely an issue with first-time head coaches.

The caveat was tied to the Eagles trying to convince Gannon to stay put with a raise that owner Jeffery Lurie intimated to at the annual spring meetings.

“That’s tough to retain. Those jobs are so scarce, they’re very highly paid today, and there’s virtually no way to retain someone who gets one of those coveted positions,” Lurie said when asked if he offered Gannon head-coaching money to stay.

Lurie then pivoted.

“However, with Jeff Stoutland and others in the past, Jim Johnson, there’s some great examples, we will go to outstanding lengths and pay them just about the most in the league in order to retain them if we think they are incredibly talented and at a very important position," he said.

That’s what the Eagles believed they had with Gannon even though many of their fans vehemently disagreed.

Enter the irony of Vic Fangio, the godfather of the modern NFL defenses designed to limit explosive plays by forcing the quarterback to diagnose coverage post-snap and limit tells pre-snap by focusing on shell looks before spinning off into a host of zone coverages with man principles.

Gannon used a version of the Fangio scheme in Philadelphia and dating back to the summer of 2022 when Fangio was a guest at training camp for a few days, an incorrect report that the former Denver head coach was hired as a consultant got cited so often that it became accepted fact.

Despise numerous attempts to correct the record many only found out that the original Fangio consulting story was misinformation when the Eagles actually hired him as a consultant to assist the coaching staff in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, essentially a two-week deal days after he had already agreed to terms with the Miami Dolphins to be their defensive coordinator on Jan. 29.

At this point, you should probably tighten your tin-foil hats to follow along.

Because two-week consultancies pre-Super Bowl for people that have already agreed to other jobs is without precedent, revisionist historians looking for explanations after the loss pointed to Fangio.

For the flat-earthers, the Eagles understood Gannon was no longer invested in the big game so they needed to bring Fangio in. The fact that the new Miami defensive coordinator was brought on to help the offense by explaining what defensive looks they might see from Kansas City is something you're supposed to forget.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter further fueled the Gan-anon crowd even more when appearing on a Philadelphia-area radio station Wednesday.

"I think it impacted a lot of peoples’ lives. Vic Fangio, for example, probably would not have taken the Dolphins defensive coordinator job and would be the defensive coordinator in Philadelphia today if everything was on the up and up." - @AdamSchefter on the Gannon tampering

— 97.5 The Fanatic (@975TheFanatic) May 3, 2023

Schefter is as plugged in as anyone but the timeline here simply doesn’t match up.

Fangio had already taken the Dolphins job before Arizona tampered with Gannon between the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl so unless Fangio was prepared to Josh McDaniels Miami at the altar, something that would have “impacted a lot of people’s lives" and been the polar opposite of the reputations of both the Eagles and Fangio, that take is misguided.

The facts of this case aren’t nearly as exciting as the fiction.

Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, now the head coach in Indy, interviewed with the Colts a second time in between the NFCCG and the Super Bowl. That's permitted because it was a second interview. You can't have a first interview in that time frame which was Arizona GM Monti Ossenfort's mistake and why the Cards were slapped with a tampering charge.

The Eagles, who have an assistant GM in Jon Ferrari whose training is in football compliance matters, took advantage of that legislation and gained valuable draft capital in the third round on Day 2, a savvy chess move by an organization known for winning outside the margins.

As for Gannon himself, Howie Roseman said from virtually Day 1 that he was renting his former DC, an ambitious climber who handled the political aspect of being a Super Bowl assistant on his way out the door poorly.

While that's not as exciting as the CIA-like intrigue many have dreamed up, it should be enough to finally turn the page. 

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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen