Eagles lose coordinators as Colts and Cardinals hire Steichen and Gannon
The Arizona Cardinals have agreed to hire Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon to be their next head coach. The news comes after the Indianapolis Colts confirmed Philly’s offensive coordinator, Shane Steichen, as the man to replace Frank Reich.
Gannon replaces Kliff Kingsbury, who was fired last month after going 4-13 in his fourth season. Gannon becomes Arizona’s fourth coach in seven years.
The 40-year-old Gannon has been Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator the past two seasons, helping rebuild a defense that helped the Eagles reach the Super Bowl last Sunday.
The Eagles had the NFL’s No 2 defense this season and the third-most sacks in NFL history with 78 under Gannon in 2022.
Gannon’s hiring is the first major move by general manager Monti Ossenfort, who was hired last month after Steve Keim and the team parted ways.
The Colts’ appointment of Steichen ends a search that took more than a month, involved more than a dozen candidates and finally gives the Colts some direction in what still appears to be a tumultuous offseason.
“Right now I’m a little emotional because this is a big day for me and my family,” Steichen said on Tuesday. “We want to get a lot of things done here, we’ve got to grind every single day.”
Each of Indy’s last two full-time hires were offensive coordinators for Philadelphia Eagles teams that made the Super Bowl. Frank Reich was hired in 2018 after the Eagles won their first championship since 1960 but was fired in October as the Colts’ season started to unravel
He was replaced by interim coach
Jeff Saturday, who won his first game but lost the final seven to give Indy the No 4 overall draft pick. Saturday was one of the finalists for the full-time job.
Now, though, the Colts seem to be changing directions again, this time most likely with a young, promising quarterback. That’s a major reason team owner Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard, who led the lengthy search, sought out the 37-year-old Steichen.
Under Steichen’s tenure in Philadelphia, Jalen Hurts went from secondround draft pick in 2020 to solid starter in 2021 to NFL MVP runner-up in 2022.
But Hurts isn’t Steichen’s only prized pupil. In 2020, as offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers, Steichen presided over Justin Herbert’s NFL offensive rookie of the year campaign. Before that, he worked with former Chargers star Philip Rivers, who played his final season in Indianapolis under the leadership of Reich and current Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
“Shane and I met in Philadelphia and had a long and thorough conversation and he was so impressive,” Irsay said, describing a Friday night meeting the week before the Super Bowl. “I know Philip had a lot of input, and he and I talked for a very long time about Shane. Shane was tremendous in the interview, showed incredible leadership, toughness, very fast mind to be able to process and disseminate information very quickly.”