In terms of style, new Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon has already provided great internet fodder because of perceived awkwardness.
New Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon says Mike Zimmer 'one of my biggest mentors'
Evidence of a Zimmer defensive coaching tree is sprouting in Arizona, though some of it is a Nick Sirianni tree as well.
February 22, 2023 at 2:00AM
But substance generally wins out in the NFL after the introductions are over, and in that regard Gannon might be an interesting hybrid — as well as a bona fide member of the Mike Zimmer coaching tree.
Gannon, the defensive coordinator with the Eagles before being hired recently for the head job with Arizona, was previously an original member of Zimmer's defensive staff with the Vikings as an assistant defensive backs coach from 2014-17.
Zimmer himself made his NFL mark initial coaching defensive backs in Dallas, and he seems to have made a significant impression on Gannon — something I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Per Peter King's interview with Gannon this week in his Football Morning In America column:
"One of my biggest mentors is Mike Zimmer. Is my personality the same as Mike Zimmer? No, it is not. Am I in alignment with a lot of things that he did as a head coach for discipline, accountability, player performance? You bet ... I am," Gannon said. "That's not saying like I'm a tough guy. Because I'm probably gonna run that more like Nick (Sirianni, Eagles head coach). They're completely different personality types. But I'll say this: Someone that worked around me would never say I'm soft on people."
There is a lot to unpack there after the original assertion that Zimmer is one of Gannon's biggest mentors. He makes a point to note that his personality is different, but at the same time he mentions a lot of Zimmer's old-school attributes as traits he espouses.
A good coach should borrow things from mentors along the way, so there's of course nothing wrong with Gannon suggesting he will be a hybrid of sorts between Zimmer and Sirianni — both of whom have had success as head coaches.
And it makes sense that he thinks so highly of Zimmer, having been around for a lot of Zim's best defenses in Minnesota. In 2017, Gannon's final year as a Vikings assistant before taking the defensive backs job in Indianapolis that led to his coordinator job in Philly, Minnesota had Football Outsiders' top-ranked defense.
It should also be noted that Gannon tapped another familiar name/face to be his defensive coordinator in Arizona: Nick Rallis, 29, the former Edina and Gophers linebacker and defensive assistant under Zimmer from 2018-2020.
