TEMPE, Ariz. -- There wasn't one specific thing that Jonathan Gannon learned this season about being a first-time head coach, but rather an inestimable number of things.
Each day with the Arizona Cardinals brought its own new set of challenges and lessons for the 41-year-old, whether it was scheduling or personnel or how to run a certain part of practice, among many others.
"Learning everything new day by day," Gannon said. "All the things that come across your desk and being new with my role, first time I've ever done it. I don't think there was one biggest challenge.
"It's just the day-to-day of trying to do the best job that you can."
Gannon, however, figured it out as he went along. He's a self-described "bottom-line guy" so he viewed his first season through the prism of Arizona's 4-13 record. To some degree, he was learning on the fly. He was also able to rely on a bevy of resources, some internally, like general manager Monti Ossenfort, and some externally, like some of his closest friends who were head coaches this past season, such as former Atlanta Falcons coach Arthur Smith and former Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley.
Throughout the season, Gannon often tried to self-evaluate.
"As I sit in the chair that I'm in, like right now, how can I impact winning in 2024? What can I do today that can impact winning, right?" Gannon said. "As you go through the year on a Monday, a Tuesday, a Wednesday, so on and so forth, how can I impact the wins and losses right now?
"You kind of adapt that through different weeks and as the year went on. I'm very process-driven. I have a routine, but with the staff around me helping me do this, I kind of change a little bit week to week. Not to say I do certain things every week at the same time on the same day, but I'm not afraid to adapt to what is going on in the building or what I feel needs a little more attention or less attention. I think that's one of the things you learn the most is you can't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone for the betterment of the team."
One thing Gannon didn't learn on his own was the need to stay in touch with his players more. He asked his players for feedback of him and said some were shocked to hear that question from the head coach.
"That's how you learn," Gannon said. "When it [doesn't come] from a place of criticism, [rather] it comes from a place of care, love and wanting to get better, it's very easy to take. The guys that I'm asking that, I understand that their critique is coming from that type of place where they want to win football games, so we all have to improve."
As Gannon grew into the job, his personality never wavered, those around him said.
"Man, if he has any more energy, I won't be able to keep up," defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc said. "I've never been a head coach before. I've been around a couple of first-time head coaches, and, you know, the first year is really like a learning curve, right? Figure it out. You have an idea of what you want to do and then there's some curveballs thrown at you, right? And I think that goes for all of us, but I think he's just gonna get better and better.
"The players love him. He's honest and straightforward with the guys, they know what our mission is, and I think that's all the players can ask."
Cornerback Andre Chachere played under Gannon with the Indianapolis Colts in 2020, with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021 and 2022, and then with the Cardinals this past season. When Chachere would get to the Cardinals' facility at 5:30 a.m., he'd often find Gannon neck deep in the cold tub yelling, "Yeah, Dre!"
"I'm like, 'J.G., it's 5:30 in the morning, man,'" Chachere said with a smile. "He brings that energy. I don't know how he does it, but he does."
That, Chachere said, is rare for a coach -- especially a young one -- who climbed the ranks quickly.
"He hasn't changed at all," Chachere said. "Like, he's always himself. He's the same person every day, and I feel like when you're consistently the same person with high energy, everybody starts to buy into that.
"When people know it's not fake, it's real, it's genuine, people buy into it, and that's what he brings."
That consistency has stood out most to Gannon's staff.
LeBlanc said one of the jobs of a head coach is to keep his team grounded when it's winning and bring it up with it's losing. Gannon can do both, LeBlanc said, because of his attitude and grasp of the team.
"Whether you're winning games, whether you're losing games, like it's hard to have a smile on your face and have energy," quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork said. "You guys walk into this building and you see Jonathan. He's smiling, he's yelling. He's got juice every single day."