The Arizona Cardinals sit in a tough spot with seven games left in the 2025 NFL season. The Cardinals aren’t eliminated from the playoffs, but Arizona has a better chance at getting the first-overall pick.
Coach Jonathan Gannon has remained steadfast with his team throughout a disappointing season, but it has been to no avail as the Cardinals sit at the bottom of the NFC West. Arizona’s season started with hope, but it quickly dwindled as the Cardinals lost five straight games after opening the season 2-0. Now, through 11 weeks, Arizona is 3-7.
Has the Time Come To Fire Jonathan Gannon?
It’s the question that everyone feels like they are asking right now. The Cardinals hired Gannon in 2023, and he’s in his third year with the team.
Gannon worked his way up as a defensive coach and became the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive coordinator in 2021. After two years with the Eagles, Gannon became the Cardinals’ head coach in 2023.
He inherited a team that had just gone 4-13 and given an enormous rookie extension to former first-overall pick Kyler Murray.
The Cardinals went 4-13 again in Gannon’s first year, but improved to 9-8 and just missed the playoffs in 2024. This season was supposed to be the “prove-it” year, the year Gannon and Murray found their way to the playoffs together and gave the franchise its first playoff win in a decade.
The Cardinals won their first two games of the year, and everything was going according to plan. However, Arizona lost two straight games via walk-off field goals to divisional opponents.
Suddenly, all hope for the season was brought back to earth. Then, the Cardinals squandered a 21-6 fourth-quarter lead against the Tennessee Titans, which remains the Titans’ lone win of the season.
It was downhill from there, as Arizona’s three-game losing streak turned into five, and now the Cardinals have lost seven of their last eight games after opening the season 2-0.
Arizona is at the lowest point of its season, and questions around Gannon’s job security are heating up. On Monday, the Cardinals’ coach had a rather blunt response to his “hot seat” in Arizona.
“Not a controllable for me. I didn’t hire myself. I’m not going to fire myself,” Gannon said. “Seriously, no, I know it comes up. That’s the business we’re in. If you don’t want to be in that business, we laugh, we joke, go work somewhere else.”
He added, “I’m going to control the controllables for myself. I come to work, and do the best job that I can, and try to get our team in a position to win a game.”
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With the Cardinals’ quarterback situation the way it is, there could be a lot of change coming for Arizona at the end of the season. Will Gannon get a chance to rebuild the franchise, or will management decide to give a new coach that chance?
The Cardinals’ offense ranks No. 20 in the NFL, according to PFSN’s Offense Impact, and their defense ranks No. 22, according to PFSN’s Defense Impact.
There is a growing belief that Murray has played his final snap as a Cardinal, which means Arizona will look for a new quarterback this offseason, and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing hasn’t impressed many this season.
To make matters worse, the Cardinals play in arguably the best division in the NFL, and one of the most competitive divisions in the league.
You have to be competitive in your division to succeed in the NFL, and the Cardinals are 3-13 against divisional opponents under Gannon. Arizona has two divisional games remaining this year, and they’re both against the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams.
The Cardinals have shown growth and hope during Gannon’s two-plus years as coach, but 2025 has been a significant step backward, and it could cost him his job.
