The Arizona Cardinals are very excited about the direction of the team with new general manager Monti Ossenfort. Team owner Michael Bidwill said Ossenfort’s detailed plan stood out over other candidates.
Bidwill, appearing on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM this past week, also revealed something that Ossenfort did that no other candidate did.
He went out and had conversations with potential head coaches before he was ever in a position to hire them.
Ossenfort interviewed for general manager jobs last year and was known as an up-and-coming executive the year before. In interviews, he would give names of coaches he would want to interview and target to lead his teams.
“He knew he was going to get a chance to be a general manager, so what did he do last year after throwing a bunch of names out,” Bidwill asked. “What he did is, last year, he took all his free time and he spent time interviewing coach. He did his own interviews.”
Ossenfort realized that some of the coaches he was recommending were guys he had never spoken to. So he contacted candidates he felt would be good and interviewed them unofficially.
Jonathan Gannon, the Cardinals’ new head coach, was at the top of the list.
Bidwill noted that Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn was also on that list. The Cardinals interviewed Glenn for the job before hiring Gannon.
Ossenfort took guys off his list after speaking with some and was more excited about others, explained Bidwill.
Gannon was one of those guys.
Now they work together and Bidwill is thrilled to have a general manager with a detailed plan from an organization that has had sustained success and with enough “foresight and the vision to weed out the chaff,” coming in prepared with coaching candidates from all over the league he had some relationship with.
It is a good start for the new Arizona GM.
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