Culture can be an elusive goal and most every NFL team strives for it. There’s no question Gannon and Ossenfort believe in it, and that continued to be evident when they met with the media last week at the Combine.
Asked what they look for at Indianapolis, Gannon said, “If they love ball and if they’re team guys first. It’s awesome meeting with them, getting to start to know them as people before you really start diving into the tape. Really looking for what I call, ‘The price of admission,’ whether they fit that.”
In lockstep with Gannon, Ossenfort said, “Anytime we add a player to our building, we’re going to talk about the fit, not only on the field but off the field as well. That’s why this week is such a big process, is we can meet with players, we can compare the information we have coming in here to our take once we get the chance to sit down across from them.
“Ultimately, we owe it to the locker room to bring in people that have the right mindset and are going to do the things that we ask them to do to put our team in the best position to win. I would put the character and the football makeup of a player (just) as much important as the on-field ability.”
The Cardinals won only four games last season, three with Kyler Murray at quarterback, but Gannon emphasized how the team’s year-long competitiveness was the result of the groundwork being laid.
“I’ve told you guys four games isn’t winning enough,” Gannon acknowledged. “But I do think we have a good plan in place to improve our players and get better and what it speaks to is kind of the culture in the locker room, the kind of people in the locker room. It’s people and how you behave, that’s it. It’s not some fancy word. It’s like, ‘Hey, who do you have and how do we behave on a daily basis?’ It’s my job to hold them to that, like, ‘This is what we want and let’s make sure we do it.’
“When it’s right, we point that out and when it’s not right, we point that out. Ultimately, the locker room took that over this year. We got good guys in the locker room and that’s why Monti and I are so convicted. Anyone we put in this locker room, they’ve got to fit that. It’s not for everybody and like I said, that’s OK. It’s what we value as an organization.”
Concluded Ossenfort, “I think really the culture when we talk about it is guys that are willing to put the team first, guys that are going to put winning above any individual interest because ultimately, if we win, individual accolades, individual success is going to follow. Guys that have that mentality, that are mature, accountable, dependable, guys that are going to attack their job with the goal to win, those are the types of guys that we’re going to add.”
The Cardinals, of course, aren’t alone in that line of thinking.
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said last week, “The best parts of the Combine are those interactions with the players. The on-field stuff is easy to see. Now it’s on high-def TV; you can see movement. But getting to know the ball player, what he’s about, what’s his why, what are the things that drive him. If there was something that had jammed him up in the past, who would be coming with them, if they moved to the city. Just knowing their family backgrounds.
“The evaluations with Adam (general manager Adam Peters) and his guys on the physical traits of the players; that’s going to stay consistent no matter where we’re at. But finding who the person is inside the helmet, inside the rib cage; that starts in moments like now.”
Lions general manager Brad Holmes was asked how emphasizing intangibles had evolved since becoming the club’s general manager in 2021.
“If anything, it’s taught us to make sure you put even more focus in on them,” he said. “Not saying that we ever ignored intangibles, but maybe if you said, ‘Well, he has this X amount of talent, ability, and say that the intangibles aren’t on steroids, but just needs a little bit of work.’ And you learn some lessons along the way. But I still am a firm believer that is the true separator of success at this level.
“I can name countless examples back from when I was with the Rams and countless examples even now within these three years that we’ve been building, where we look at our top players that have been really core foundational players and they have the intangibles that we’re looking for, so it’s not a surprise they’ve had the success they’ve had.”
As Gannon said, “I just feel like if you have enough of those guys, you’ll win.”
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
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