Hey everybody, and welcome to the Dave Pash Podcast. I'm your host ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcast your Dave Pash. We've been away for a while, but the pod is back. We are going to tape a series of episodes over the next few months, and we kick it off with Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwild. This is the second time that Michael has appeared on the podcast, and obviously a lot has changed since his first appearance. The Cardinals have a new general manager as well as a new head coach. Michael will go in depth on the process that led to the hiring of Mantias and Fort, as well as Jonathan Gannett. Michael's also going to give us an update on the health and progress of Kyler Murray, the Cardinals quarterback who's coming off major knee surgery. I think right now, I mean, he's a young man, it looks like he's a fast healer. Things are going well. Let's hope that keeps going the way it is and that there are no setbacks as he comes back. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you're gonna feel like you were brought in to the interview room When you hear this conversation with Michael, he's very open and honest and transparent about what he liked about Monny and Jonathan Gannon and some of the things that Cardinals still need to fix, like the line of scrimmage, other areas of concern that he has with regard to the roster, what the draft process is going to look like going forward. All that and more with Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. Coming up, We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Sign up today with BETMGM, the official partner of the Arizona Cardinals. Use code cards one thousand and get back up to one thousand dollars in bonus bets. If you don't win your first bet, visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one years of agere older to wager Arizona only new customer offer. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step All right, The Dave Pash Podcast is back and our guest today as own a Cardinals owner, Michael Bidwill. So, Michael, you've been one of the busiest guys in sports, between hiring a general manager, hiring a head coach, hosting a Super Bowl, have you had a chance to catch a breath at all. Yeah. It took the weekend off immediately after the press conference introducing Jonathan Gannon as our head coach. Took off and went to South Florida and took a long weekend as President's Day weekend. So it was it was really nice to take a few days off, got back here Monday afternoon, and right back at it yesterday morning. So we're you just in a stretch where you weren't sleeping, You're just grinding between the searches and everything going on with the Super Bowl. Well, I slept, and a lot of this, you know, started before the end of the season because you know, you could see things happening, and I knew that Steve Kim was not going to be with the organization, you know, before we announced it, and so there was works that started all the way into December. We had a great the NFL had hosted a great accelerator program through the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in Dallas early in December, and that was a good chance for me to meet a number of different candidates, including several that we spoke with, so I'm excited about our future. It was definitely a long six weeks. It really picked up after the end of the season when when we made the changes and announced that Steve would not be returning as general manager and immediately jumped into the GM search and sort of simultaneously, you know, was approached by a number of different folks about head coaching the head coach position as well, So there's a tremendous interest, you know. I would say, you know, just roughly about twenty five different candidates that were wanted to get into that pipeline of being interviewed for the general manager position, and more than thirty, probably thirty five different candidates who were approached different ways for the head coach position. But I think we've got a great one with Monti astin Ford. I've been working with him now for several weeks and now one week on the job with JG and Jonathan Gannon's been terrific as well. So it's it's cool to get into this rhythm with Monti and you know, just figuring out how we're going to work together. You know, there's a build up to it, and you know, it's just been going great. So I want to dive a little bit deeper into each and kind of the process of going through those interviews and the decision making. But let's go back to during the season. You mentioned you had an inkling Steve wasn't going to be back and you were going to make a change at head coach. When did that start? When did you start thinking, you know, I feel like there's got to be a change in the direction of the organization. Well, I think it was earlier in December where I felt like Steve wouldn't be back. Didn't talk about it. I wanted to wait until I had we had played all the games to do the full evaluation with coach Kingsbury. But I felt like, man, he really put a lot of effort in trying to get this team in the right direction, and I think it just got to a point to where it was just time for a change. But it wasn't because of a lack of effort. I mean, he put in the time, he worked hard. Appreciate all his contributions and his staff as well. Many of his staff will not be back, but I do appreciate what they contributed. So when you started the process then of you said you knew Steve wasn't gonna be back before it was announced, and you start the process of searching for a general manager. What was that like to start to put feelers out there because you had obviously internal candidates and ended up going with an external candidate. Yeah, as you know, I put Adrian Wilson and Quentin Harris in a sort of co general managers on an interim basis, asked them to each take part of the general manager's roles. They end up sort of combining them, which was fine too, But I thought it was you know, it was it was good to be talking to people. I wasn't going to talk about it very broadly. I want to just talk to people that I trusted, knowing that it wouldn't get out by just talking to that group of people. And then when it became clear that we were getting real close to the end of the season, that's when I invited both Adrian and Quinton to interview for the position, and as well, I had spoken to Jerry Reese even before the season ended, former general manager of the New York Football Giants. Jerry Reese, Can you talk about that a little bit in terms of just your relationship with him and how far you guys go back. Well, we go way back. I mean he's he was with the Giants for a long long time, and he has two Super Bowl rings and now he's been out of football for quite a few years. But I wanted to speak to him. I in speaking to Rod Graves, who heads up the Fritz Power Alliance, he was very high on Jerry, as so was John Mara, the owner of the New York Giants. So I thought it was it was great to get together with him. I flew after the game in Atlanta, I flew out to Nashville and met him in his town and we spent about three hours together and just asked him to keep it, keep it wrapped up and confidential and U and then we had him back out when you know, we started the process formally the following week. When did Monty Austin Ford's name first come up? And how did it come up? It came up Probably the first person that that spoke about Monty was was John Mara, another good friend in the in the league, uh, and I heard about him from other owners who had spoken with him. I spoke to Robert Kraft, about him, his name. You know, he had worked for the Patriots for many, many years, and Robert was very very high on money, and so there were his name came up pretty early and uh and and we actually spoke, We had a lengthy phone call one one evening before he even came to town for the interview and uh and I really got a sense of Money then, and it was it was very impressive. What were some of the things that stood out to you right away about Money, whether it's his personality or how he viewsed the game. I think he's he's got that. Uh. You know, we've talked about our our system, which is about to be our former system, a best player available for for draft and things along those lines. He comes from a completely different system and I would call it the New England system with a little bit of a modification. And that's where they're looking for specific type of players with specific types of characteristics, and they're not worried about what everybody else thinks. And um and when you look at New England, I've done a great job of identifying players with physical characteristics, with mental characteristics, with high football intelligence and then having success out of that system. So we talked quite a bit about that. We talked about what kind of coach he wanted to have in place. I think it really showed me how prepared he was because he had already interviewed a number of different coaches. So he went through this interview process last year and he realized, Hey, I'm putting names out there that I just know reputationally or I've only met a few times and haven't really spoken to. So he took his offseason, He took June and July and set up zooms with a bunch of the coaches that were on his list and some that weren't on his list, and some of those coaches rose to the top. Jonathan Gannon was one of them. Some of those coaches were eliminated based on those interviews. So he really did a screening process before he was even named general manager of any team. And I thought it really showed how dialed in he is to you know, getting ready to be a general manager. That he was ahead of it and he wasn't going to waste any team's time by saying, well, let's go talk to these folks. He had already done it. Everybody on his list was somebody he had already vetted and he wanted to get deeper into the Into the interview, you mentioned that the new system of evaluating players is very similar to what he had in New England. So you've been in those draft board rooms now for twenty five years. Will this will the room and the grading system and the board, Will that look completely different than it's looked in the past. You think, well, you're kind to say, been looking at it for twenty five years. It's probably much longer than that. That is embarrassingly long because of at a young age when I walked into the into the draft room in the nineteen seventies and eighties. Our system is pretty much the same as it was in the seventies and eighties. But in the seventies and not until the later in the eighties, the data that was written on our cards was handwritten and it was just on a card, and it was stored in somebody's notebook. And today that that same data is stored in a computer and printed off on a printer, which didn't exist in the seventies and eighties. So it's kind of funny. We modified it a few times, one around off field character and a big, big upgrade around Danny Green when Danny Green came in and had us reorganized the board, and this is the way many of the teams do it. It's just it's like flipping from a three foard defense to a four three defense. We're just changing systems here. It's not going to look much different this year. But because what Moni didn't want to do is because a lot of scouting has happened with scouts, is to sort of change the language and change the system midstream. So he's adapting to how we have been grading, and then he's going to adapt that and adapt the board. But going into the twenty twenty three college football season, we're going to make that full change as soon as the draft is over, and then the twenty four draft will look a lot like a modified New England, modified Tennessee system, because this is the system they input at Tennessee. As well. Your conversations with Monty about the current roster when you were trying to make the decision about Monty, what were some of the things that stood out to you that impressed you about some of the things he had to say about the current roster that you have. Well, I think number one, we spent a lot of time talking about Kyler and what type of offense we should be running and how to protect him and where we should be spending our money. We've got a lot of money hide up in a couple of different positions, and so I think you're going to see that change. We're gonna I think you're going to see us beefing up the offensive line, the defensive line. We've got to get help at corner. We've got to get a just more protection for Kyler, and then we've got to be able to rush the passers, especially in the in the NFC West. So I think you're going to see a lot of a lot of changes, but they're not going to happen immediately, and they will happen over the next several years is we get opportunities to build on the draft class that's coming up. You mentioned about Adrian and Quinton their roles as co interim general managers leading up to the end of the season. What were the conversations like with those difficult conversations when you had to say, look, I'm going to go in a different direction. We're going to go with an external candidate. Yeah, I think they understood it's part of the business, and both of them want to be gms, and certainly we're hoping, but I think, you know, what I want to do is make the best decision for the Cardinal's long term and sometimes that is a tough decision relative to the people that were applying for it internally. And same thing with Vance Joseph, who had interviewed for the head coach position. You know, you'd love to be able to promote from from within, but what we needed to do is make the best decision for the Cardinals and what was the best decision for us? And I thought that was Monti assin Fort and I thought that was Jonathan Gannon. One of the other candidates that you spoke with that you mentioned at your press conference in terms of general manager was Matt Harris. Can you just talk about you Matt, who assume is going to stay with the organization his future, and what impressed you about Matt and what he does for the team. Matt does a great job with our cap and with some other things that we do here in terms of the administration of the of the roster, and really helped helped out Quentin and Adrian during Steve's absence, and so he did all three of those guys really stepped up, and before December when it was clear that Steve wasn't well, and so they stepped up in a great way. But I'd say about matt Is, I've been around a lot of CAP guys, and he's right up there at the top. I mean, he does a great job for us. He understands the rules, he understands the CAP, he understands the agent community, and he understands how we need to maximize things. And I think more importantly, Monie loved him when he had a chance to sit down and have the full conversation with him. Those guys are going to work together great. You talked about being able to have conversations with people that you trust in the business and keeping those conversations confidential. You guys have always done a really good job with that. I go back to the DeAndre Hopkins trade. When all of a sudden, I see it on Twitter. It's an Adam Schefter tweet him, I'm looking okay, it's a blue check. That really happened. DeAndre Hopkins is coming to Arizona. So you've obviously have been able to build those relationships where things don't get leaked. And it was interesting because Jonathan Gannon's name, at least publicly, wasn't really out there until the end. You guys did a good job of because you mentioned Monty obviously liked Jonathan and some of your early conversations with him. Is that accurate that he was somebody all along that you guys had your eye on. Yeah, that long telephone conversation, we sort of jumped ahead and okay, well who's on your list? And Jonathan Gannon one of number one on his list. There were others. Aaron Glenn was another trying to think of all the names that were on that list, but Aaron Glenn was up there too, the defensive coordinator at at Detroit who came in and did a great job as well. So I think that that, you know, again, Monny was the most prepared general manager candidate that came in, you know, in terms of being ahead of the job. Nobody else hadn't done these interviews of the coaches, and I was just super impressed by that. Showed a lot of a lot of foresight and and also weeding out people that they might be a name that everybody's buzzing about, but you know, he eliminated some of those folks that might have been not might have been they were on other people's lists, and so it was interesting. It it was a great process to go through. The other three people that I want to thank is internally, you know, I ask three people from our executive senior executive staff to help out. Lisa Manning, who's been with the team for since two thousand before the stadium vote, and runs all of our marketing and business operations. Mark Dalton, our senior vice president of media Relations, been with us since two thousand and four. And then Sean Mayo, who is our chief people officer, does all of our human relations and does an amazing job, and he's entering his third season with us. And the three of those folks really helped me. And we all came to the same conclusions but from maybe different angles, and they all contributed a lot, and I want to thank them. And then I think, in the backdrop of all this, Dave we talked about at the top of the interview, we were preparing for a Super Bowl at the same time, and there were, you know, on my staff, Melissa Gaspard, Brittany new heiselm so many other folks that helped out to help make this an amazing super Bowl, not just for you know, the valley and the participating teams in the NFL, but also for all of our partners, our employees, everybody that was able to participate in this. I think it turned out to be an amazing um, an amazing weekend. Thank God the weather, you know, cooperated. But we were able to do all this, and I didn't. I wasn't able to focus on some of the detail, not some many of the details. And there were a lot of great members of our staff that that picked up the slack for us and allowed us to stay focused on the tasks at hand, which was first general manager and then head coach search. And after the Super Bowl you meet with Jonathan Gannon, he's named the next head coach of the Cardinals. What was your first impression of I know he likes to go by JG. What was your first impression of JG? It was very positive. He talked a little bit about our high school experience. Both of us went to Jesuit high schools, Jesuit educated where you learn to be men and women for others. You know that we called it men for others at our high school all boys, and so we hit it off there and that was a joked. I'm like, man, you're talking about your high school school experience as much as I do. And then his huge amount of energy and passion for the game. He came off of, you know, a really tough Super Bowl loss, and he showed up the next afternoon here at the training facility raring to go, and he just took over the room and it's like, Okay, this is what we're talking about. This guy has the ability to lead, He has the ability you know, to you know, keep the conversation moving and and that was pretty cool. What about his philosophy was it something right away that clicked with you in terms of how you view where this organization needs to go in terms of coaching philosophy and player philosophy. Yeah. No, I think he outlined a great plan for the offense and particularly for Kyler Murray and was very excited about him, and most of the candidates were. There were no there was a lot of noise out there that people were turned off by him. Not at all. I think people, you know, uh, realize what a great dual threat talent he is. He's got this injuries working through, so that's something any coach was going to have to manage will do that. And then on the defensive side of the ball, it was just no question what he did in Philadelphia. Obviously, we've got to rebuild that defensive line, especially with J. J. Watt retiring, but I have confidence that we're going to We're gonna be able to do that with Monny and and JG working together. And then i'd say back, I'm not sure I've fully answered the question about the secrecy of our interest in JAG. Part of what we didn't want to do was disturb any of the coaches that were in the playoffs actively. So it was not just Jonathan Gannon, but also lou Anna Rumo who was still participating in in the playoffs with the Cincinnati Bengals. We didn't put in their names until after they were eliminated and then and that's what we did with Jonathan, and word got out a little bit over the weekend because I don't know why, but it did. But it didn't distract him until we hit him Monday morning with the permission request to speak to him about our head coach position. His energy, I have not met him, but his energy seems off the charts. I heard somebody say the other day they were in they were in the building at like six in the morning, and they happened to walk by his office and they can hear him in They're going, yeah, that's awesome. I guess he was watching film and talking himself. I don't know if he was on a zoom with somebody, but he's got incredible energy. Everybody says, yeah, he's got a voice, and so he can hear him down the hall. When he's he can, he'll fill up the room. And there's just no question about it. But I think he was doing zooms because they were doing zoom interviews. Like as soon as I mean, as soon as the press conference was over, he sent his family off back to the Arizona Biltmore, where we put him up for the weekend so they can enjoy their time out here over the long weekend and and sort of celebrate their dad's success. But he was ready to go to work right away, and they did, and so he was bang, bang, bang through a bunch of back to back zooms. Was the defense versus offense? Was that even part of the conversation between you and Monty when it came to looking at head coach or it didn't matter. We want the best guy. We want the best guy. My personal you know interest, and call it a bias, was we should probably have somebody who's on the offensive side of the ball, but I want to keep an open mind. And it was pretty clear, especially when you look at the final candidates that we had. Three of them were defensive side of the ball and it was just one, Mike Kafka, who was on the offensive side of the ball, because we just felt like those were the best leaders out there, those four. Do you also think there's something too if we have a defensive head coach, we're going to have somebody on the offensive side who is completely focused on Kyler and the offense and not about head coaching, managing the defense, just all the other things that go along with being a head coach. Well, I think he's going to be in the traditional head coach role. He's going to let his defensive coordinator do his thing, He's going to let his offensive coordinator do his thing, and I think he will probably spend maybe a little more time on the offense because of all the work that we need to do there to really get it right and also to man the you know, the phase in of who's starting the season will it be, will it be Kyler or not? And installing that offense. So I think and also is showing uh, not only um Drew, but also you know, our offensive coordinator, but also Kyler. Here's what I would do as a defensive coordinator to attack this offense. And I think that'll be a really important important thing to keep us sharp. You mentioned Drew Drew pets Ng thirty five years old, Nick Rowlis, twenty nine year old, defensive coordinator. I don't know if you've had a chance to get to know each guy yet. What are your thoughts on on those two guys? Extremely sharp, decisive, high energy guys, soldiers that are going to go out there and just absolutely execute and raise that standard that we all want. I mean, I'm I'm excited about these two leaders and and and all the other members of the staff that I've met. I think JG did a really good job because he similarly had been thinking he knew he was going to be a head coach at some point. He interviewed for it, you know, last year, and you know, he knew if he didn't get this position, he was going to be interviewing next year. He had already had it in his mind several folks that he wanted to approach, and so when he went through his plan, it was just bing, bing bing. It's interesting you've used the word leader leadership a lot in talking about all these candidates, and I think there were some times over the last few years where when things weren't going well, you know, we all kind of like, well, where is the leadership, whether it was you know, from the coaching staff or the players. So how much of you're thinking when you're going through the process of hiring a GM and a coach and then the assistance and what you're going to look at for players is hey, we need the leadership and accountability to be better in that locker room. That was the absolutely the number one thing I was focused on is, you know, lots of people can do the x's and knows it's okay. Making sure that we raise the bar here and that we are absolutely getting the players to perform at the highest level on every single play. And you know, you heard j G talk about it. Everybody is results oriented. Everybody wants you know, hey, everybody wants to win. But winning starts with the process and it's about doing a great job on Monday, doing a great job on Tuesday, doing a great job on Wednesday, and everything you do builds up to Sunday, and it starts in the off season. So what he's trying to do is instill that as a culture and with our leaders in the locker room and make sure those guys take over his words and take over because he's a culture builder. There's no question about that. He did it at Philadelphia, he did it at Minnesota, and I think what you'll see is he's going to do it here in Arizona, and I think it's gonna be pretty cool to watch us unfold over the next several months. I've got one more coach question. I'm want to get to the players first. I think this has been great. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you're very appreciative of your transparency, because this is outstanding for fans to be able to hear kind of take him inside, the information that they get that they can't get otherwise, to be able to know kind of what you were thinking when you went through the process of hiring a GM and a coach, and it's all great stuff. Jeff Rogers staying on somebody who's been Now this is the third staff he's been on. How important was that to you and to MONI to have Jeff here, given his role helping Cliff in terms of managing the clock and then also obviously being in charge of special teams. I think, and it's it's just not that Jeff Rogers who will stay on board, but there are others on the staff that will be staying on board. And I'm excited about it because he is one of the better special teams coordinators in the league. And I think, let's do what's best for the Cardinals. Do what's best for us to have success on the field, and to have it right away. There was no reason to start over, you know. I was going to let jg make his decision on everybody on the staff, which he's done. But what I really wanted to do was to m you know, make sure we retain the best of the of the staff that we could. So Kyler, you talked obviously about his importance. We all know this team is going to go as far as Kyler takes him. It's how it works in the NFL. It's about the quarterback. How's his rehab going. I think his rehab is going very well. I think he's ahead of schedule and he is in here every day, and so it's been great to see him when I've been able to pull my head out of the meetings and run down and get a bite to eat, being able to stop by and see him, and he's fired up, and I know that he and JG have already kicked off a great relationship and uh, and so it's it's pretty cool. How involved was Kyler? Did you pick his brain at all or tell him, Hey, this is what I'm thinking when you're going through the process of both GM and coach. Yeah, so it was just not Kyler, but other players. I had, you know, multiple commun unications with Kyler, just not only checking in on how he's doing, but you know, he let me know who he liked, and so did other players in our locker room. You know, zach Ertz was here and heard from Buddha. I heard from quite a few of our leaders about you know, who they had worked with before, what they had been hearing and things like that. And so I just wanted to take all input and try to get a three hundred and sixty degree view of every candidate, whether it was general manager or head coach. Do you think that's rare? That sounds rare to me that an owner would be not only talking sounds. You talked to other owners, you talked to other gms, you talked to obviously people within the organization. You had people that you counted on that are part of your senior staff that are not on the football side, that you had involved, and you're talking to players. I gotta think that's pretty rare. Well, I don't know if it's rare, but I just felt like, you know, we talk about due diligence, what does that mean. It's like, hey, let's let's try to gather as much information. And we were doing it from from people in the football world, you know, and from NFL films to Nike to other folks that just have touch points with different people in the football world, whether it's general managers or head coaches. So we had we were taking every bit of input we could get from the league office, etc. And that's what was great about having Mark Dalton, Lisa Manning, and Seawan Mayo part of it because they all have their own networks and we were tapping into everybody's including some members of the media who had great things to say about different candidates. At this point, you mentioned Kyler's ahead of schedule. Do we have a sense of at this point, I know it's late February, the season doesn't start for a long time, but do you get a sense that he's going to be ready on this particular date or in this particular window or can't say it, you know, I think it's gonna be earlier than you know, this mid season, so hopefully it's towards the beginning of the season. But you know, I don't want to put any specific dates because there could be setbacks. There could be the progress could slow. But I think right now, I mean, he's a young man, it looks like he's a fast healer. Things are going well. Let's hope that keeps going the way it is and then that there are no setbacks as he comes back. And I think that's one of the things that the other areas that Moni is going to be looking at. And same thing what JG is, Okay, what is the best thing we can be doing around sports science? Our return to play, our training room and getting the players back. And we call it return to play, but it's return to practice and play. So that there are not setbacks as we get back onto the practice field, and there could be a quick ramp up period that doesn't have setbacks. There's a lot of science around that now, and I think that's an area that we're going to build out the organization as well as we go forward over the next several several weeks. What do you envision for Kyler not just for this year when he comes back, but long term with Jonathan Gannon as a head coach, true pet Sing as the offensive coordinator, in terms of maximizing his skill set, Well, I think what we're gonna do is is try to take some of the pressure off of him and then put him in position where when it's time for him to make a play, whether it's with his arm or with his feet, that he's going to be in a position to do that. But also take some of the pressure off of him. I think the way the offense was before, he had a choice on almost every play we ran, and so we were making him think too much and we were making him put too much pressure on him. And what we need him to do is to play faster and to play with that confidence that will come with Okay, I don't have to get every first down I can hand the ball off. I know they're going to put him under center quite a bit, and that's going to take some of the pressure off because the pass rushers won't be able to get after him as quickly as if he's in the gun. So I think, I think this will be a This will be good for him, and I think it'll be good for us, and I think we're gonna have more production on off It's interesting because you know Wolf. I'm sure you probably heard Wolf say it, whether it's during a broadcast round to show the blending of you know, the blending of the old and the new. Michael, I mean, you've known Wolf forever, going back to when you were a ball boy and he was a player on the team exactly. And it feels like the way Wolf looks at the game, being physical, being multiple, kind of the Eagles blueprint and how they ran their offense that in how Cleveland to Cleveland was very unique. Did a lot of under center and then you saw a lot of you know, shotgun and depending on whether it's Rosetta Watson a quarterback, do you see the Cardinals kind of being like that where it is really a true blending of the old and the new, as Wolf would say, I think so. And I also think you know, we're going to be we're gonna be not just looking at the new in the NFL, but we're gonna be looking at the new. And Jonathan Gann has said as press conference the way football is played in the NFL in twenty twenty three will be different than twenty twenty two, and so you have to be adaptable. There's no question in my mind that we're going to be looking to what's done at the college game because that really helps influence the NFL game. And so they're going to be things that are being done that the players, especially this new crop of players will bring in from twenty twenty three's college classes that we're we're going to be doing a lot of things differently, and so I'm looking forward to seeing everything that's developed, especially after we finish with the draft and with free agency. So, if Kyler isn't available to start the year, what's your sense organizationally of the comfort level with Colt? Well, the Colt's coming back from an injury as well, that he is going to limit him during the off season, So I think, you know, we've got to and I'm not as dialed in on where his recovery is, so that's going to be another, um, you know, set of dynamics that that that Drew and JG are going to have to work through in terms of Okay and Monnie, you know, or we're going to definitely need a quarterback that can help us out during the the OTAs and everything, and we can't put it all on Colt when he comes back. But I know Colt can still play. I know he feels he can still play, and he's he's, he's he's he's still got a lot of gas left in the tank and I've got a lot of confidence in him. So we'll see exactly what the plan is. That's not for me to figure out. That's for those guys to figure out. But I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. So I'm guessing part of that plan could be free agency, could be drafting a quarterback at some point. I assume we're not ruling either of those out. I don't think we rule anything out. Yeah, No, We've got to keep all options on the table, and I know Monty and JG and Drew will be exploring that. But you know, we need to we need to see how the recoveries are coming along and then figure out what's the best option for us. Can you go back, you touch a little bit on other areas of need and some things maybe philosophically that'll be different in terms of what you guys are going to address here with free agency and drafting. What do you think is foremost? I think probably number one is the staff. Getting the staff in place, and I think we've done that. It's almost done. I would say about eighty five to ninety percent done. Then I think clearly it's offensive line defensive line. You know, we've got a lot of skill players in different positions, and then trying to figure out what we're doing around draft and free agency. But it's it's gonna be offensive line defensive line because we've got to build that offensive line so we can get back to running the ball, protecting Kyler and defensive line, especially in the NFC West, we're going to need a really good defensive line, and you know, with the retirement of JJ Watt, we've got a big hold of field there. We got to see if we can get Zach Allen resigned and which we're interested in doing and get that going. And I think he wants to be here, So I think there's gonna be a lot of things on the to do list here. The first thing is next week is is the combine, So everybody's going to be heading back to Indianapolis for that. You talked a bunch during the multiple press conferences about being the best team in the division, you know sometimes, and I feel like I've heard you say that all the time. I don't know if that's something that's always been because obviously, you win your division, you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. Has that always been your focus? Hey, we got to look at the other three organizations and say how can we be the best of those four as opposed to looking at the other thirty one organizations. Yeah, I think it all starts in the division. If you can win your division, then you host a home playoff game, and if you're really good, then you get a chance to have a buy that super wild card weekend. And so what the whole plan is if we really are serious about, you know, winning, we've got to be able to win the NFC West and that's a tall order. There's some great coaches, great quarterbacks, and great players and teams and organizations and so we've got to build an outstanding organization here, which I think we're doing so. Over the last you know, month and a half, you've been, as I mentioned the top of the podcast, as busy as is anybody in sports. M the Super Bowl week. What were some of the highlights for you, h, Not just you know, the interview process with with Monty and then you know, leaning up to look into the candidates for head coach, but in terms of the event itself, what were some of the highlights for you? Wow? There were so many, Um, you know, I think, uh, it was great to be able to be a part of many different meals, luncheons, dinners and things along those lines. Um. You know. First was Thursday, the Fritz Polder Alliance had their awards luncheon. It was great to see so many leaders in that room. H Friday was the Hall of Fame luncheon where they honored my grandmother, Violet Bidwell, the first female owner in NFL history and h one of the first in the world, and celebrate her and her success. And then I'd say, you know, just being able to I had a bunch of friends come in town. We had a blast, you know, little bits of time on Friday night and Saturday night as well, but you know, seeing all the other owners. We hosted a dinner party down at the Science Center in downtown Phoenix and had a huge tent and had all the teams there, the commissioner, the leaders of all the different networks and some of the Cardinals partners as well. There had a beautiful dinner and that that was one where Missy Gaspard and the rest of the you know, the event's crew here helped plan that dinner. And then we went across the street inside of the Phoenix Convention Center for the post party, which was we had a party and that was I called Lisa Mannings Party. That's so we had a fantastic party. I believe you were there, I think because we invited the whole staff. I know, I was in EUGENEO. I went from New Orleans to gene Oregon and got back like late because yeah, I'm sorry, that's that time of year with college basketball, NBA everything else going on. Good problem to have. But Gwen Stefanie was our entertainment and she just rocked it out. It was awesome, and so we had a great time Saturday night and then game Day. The whole weekend was beautiful. The other thing that I had the honor of doing again was participating as Vice Chairman of the Arizona Commerce Authority in our Visiting CEO program. In twenty fifteen, Governor Doocey and I teamed up invited fifty different companies that were seriously about expanding or relocating to Arizona. We landed twenty of those fifty companies, over two billion dollars of investment, tens of thousands of employees at high paying jobs with benefits. This time around, I teamed up with Governor Katie Hobbs and we I think we had seventy CEOs this time around, same visits CEO program, with different with different companies this time around, and I felt really good. Saturday afternoon, she and I and Sandra Watson, who heads up the Arizona Commerce Authority, we had what I call corporate speed dating, and it was twenty minute meetings with multiple companies, trying to pitch them to come to Arizona. What can we do to close out this deal? And so I think we're going to land a bunch of those I felt really good about those meetings. Governor Hobbs, who doesn't have a background in economic development, did a great job in those meetings helping us. You know, it's the sales pitch. It's like corporate free agency. It's you know, you're trying to love up on these folks and get them to commit to Arizona. So I think we're going to land a bunch of those. So that was another big highlight of the weekend. And then the game was amazing Rihanna's halftime show. The stadium looked beautiful. There were so many good things that happened there. We had so many great leaders and partners in the building, and I think the campus looked amazing. Sportsman's Park at State Farm Stadium, it was just so much bigger than it was in twenty fifteen, probably three times the amount of parties happening on the campus there. It was amazing. You've hosted multiple Super Bowls. I assume you want to and will host more. And obviously one of the draws for the Super Bowl is the stadium. How have you been able to keep it modern? The investments that you guys have been able to make and will continue to make in the stadium so since twenty fifteen, we've made over two hundred million dollars worth of investments. And when these investments are all about fan experience. So it's upgrading the Wi Fi to the latest technology. It's installing five G capability inside the stadium and outside the stadium, the parking lots, the Great Lawn, the South Lawn, everywhere. It is modifying some of the sidewalks to make it easier to get into into the stadium. It's upgrading the security, it's upgrading the sound system. We invested in the Great Lawn to create a fan pavilion out with permanent restrooms and a beer garden. We a lot of talk last year around the bed MGM Sportsbook, the first NFL stadium, So we built new buildings. We invested in the pregame experience. We've invested in the in game experience, new video boards. I mean two hundred million dollars. We you know, there's more to be done, and we'll continue to upgrade and make the fan game day experience and the pregame experience to be the best it can be. And we're an organization. There's some sports teams out there that you know, let their buildings fall behind. We're one that constantly is investing in it. And I know our fans recognize it because they see it. And it's just not upgrading the club area or the suites where the high end customers are, but it's the entire experience. Anybody that's coming into that venue is noticed the big upgrades that we've made throughout the entire building and the entire parking lot area around the stadium. Well, somebody that is in a lot of stadiums, a lot of I see the ones that do lag behind that start out great. And I'm not just saying this because you're sitting right here, but it State Farm Stadium remains at the top in terms of the venues that I that I see, and I see NBA College Football and obviously all the NFL ones. So yeah, no, I think I think we've done a great job of literally keeping up with the Joneses to the other stadium I like, is is the one in Minneapolis, the Viking Stadium is US Bank Stadium is amazing as well, and Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium is awesome. But there's no better stadium than State Farm Stadium, especially when the Red Sea is rocking and We're going to get back to that. Winning football games at home is extremely important to me, and that was something that I really emphasized with jg and with Monni. We're going to get back to that. Well, this has been great again. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you're excited. I said in one of the interviews I did early on and they asked me about, you know, my thoughts. I said, you know, I think Michael made a pretty big statement going outside the organization for a general manager, the hiring of Jgum. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you've got to be excited about the direction that Michael's not messing around. I guess is how I put it. There was a lot of noise out there, Dave, and you saw some of the stuff. It was just nonsense that people just you know, blah blah blah, and we ignored it and it was like, we weren't going to hit the easy button. We were going to make sure that we did what we needed to do to make the best decisions for this organization going forward. And I think we did and time will tell, but I'm excited about the start we're off too. Now. Well, I know fans appreciate that and also are appreciative of your candor today. Thanks Mike, appreciate you, appreciate Dave Wow. A lot to unpack from our conversation with Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill. Again, if you're a Cardinal fan, I think you really appreciate the candor, the honesty, the transparency about the past, present and future of the Arizona Cardinals. I think the whole process of the draft that's going to change over the next few years that really stood out to me. And they're change in philosophy from what the Cardinals had been doing to what they're going to be doing going forward, which mirrors what the New England Patriots have done and been so successful at over the last two decades. The update on Kyler Murray's health was newsworthy, as well as the fact that Colt McCoy is going to be limited during the off season and that could necessitate something through either the draft or free agency in terms of bringing in another quarterback to get the Cardinals through the off season. Again, appreciate Michael's time and hopefully if you're a Cardinal fan, you got a lot out of this conversation. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. You can expect over the next several months to hear from Cardinals GM Moni asen Fort and head coach Jonathan Gannon, as well as a lot of others on the Dave Pash Podcast or Thanks to you for listening. You can follow us on Twitter at Pashpod. You can also rate us and review us. Tell us what you think by going to your podcast platform. Thanks again to Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. Thanks to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast
Hey everybody, and welcome to the Dave Pash Podcast. I'm your host ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcast your Dave Pash. We've been away for a while, but the pod is back. We are going to tape a series of episodes over the next few months, and we kick it off with Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwild. This is the second time that Michael has appeared on the podcast, and obviously a lot has changed since his first appearance. The Cardinals have a new general manager as well as a new head coach. Michael will go in depth on the process that led to the hiring of Mantias and Fort, as well as Jonathan Gannett. Michael's also going to give us an update on the health and progress of Kyler Murray, the Cardinals quarterback who's coming off major knee surgery. I think right now, I mean, he's a young man, it looks like he's a fast healer. Things are going well. Let's hope that keeps going the way it is and that there are no setbacks as he comes back. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you're gonna feel like you were brought in to the interview room When you hear this conversation with Michael, he's very open and honest and transparent about what he liked about Monny and Jonathan Gannon and some of the things that Cardinals still need to fix, like the line of scrimmage, other areas of concern that he has with regard to the roster, what the draft process is going to look like going forward. All that and more with Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. Coming up, We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Sign up today with BETMGM, the official partner of the Arizona Cardinals. Use code cards one thousand and get back up to one thousand dollars in bonus bets. If you don't win your first bet, visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one years of agere older to wager Arizona only new customer offer. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step All right, The Dave Pash Podcast is back and our guest today as own a Cardinals owner, Michael Bidwill. So, Michael, you've been one of the busiest guys in sports, between hiring a general manager, hiring a head coach, hosting a Super Bowl, have you had a chance to catch a breath at all. Yeah. It took the weekend off immediately after the press conference introducing Jonathan Gannon as our head coach. Took off and went to South Florida and took a long weekend as President's Day weekend. So it was it was really nice to take a few days off, got back here Monday afternoon, and right back at it yesterday morning. So we're you just in a stretch where you weren't sleeping, You're just grinding between the searches and everything going on with the Super Bowl. Well, I slept, and a lot of this, you know, started before the end of the season because you know, you could see things happening, and I knew that Steve Kim was not going to be with the organization, you know, before we announced it, and so there was works that started all the way into December. We had a great the NFL had hosted a great accelerator program through the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in Dallas early in December, and that was a good chance for me to meet a number of different candidates, including several that we spoke with, so I'm excited about our future. It was definitely a long six weeks. It really picked up after the end of the season when when we made the changes and announced that Steve would not be returning as general manager and immediately jumped into the GM search and sort of simultaneously, you know, was approached by a number of different folks about head coaching the head coach position as well, So there's a tremendous interest, you know. I would say, you know, just roughly about twenty five different candidates that were wanted to get into that pipeline of being interviewed for the general manager position, and more than thirty, probably thirty five different candidates who were approached different ways for the head coach position. But I think we've got a great one with Monti astin Ford. I've been working with him now for several weeks and now one week on the job with JG and Jonathan Gannon's been terrific as well. So it's it's cool to get into this rhythm with Monti and you know, just figuring out how we're going to work together. You know, there's a build up to it, and you know, it's just been going great. So I want to dive a little bit deeper into each and kind of the process of going through those interviews and the decision making. But let's go back to during the season. You mentioned you had an inkling Steve wasn't going to be back and you were going to make a change at head coach. When did that start? When did you start thinking, you know, I feel like there's got to be a change in the direction of the organization. Well, I think it was earlier in December where I felt like Steve wouldn't be back. Didn't talk about it. I wanted to wait until I had we had played all the games to do the full evaluation with coach Kingsbury. But I felt like, man, he really put a lot of effort in trying to get this team in the right direction, and I think it just got to a point to where it was just time for a change. But it wasn't because of a lack of effort. I mean, he put in the time, he worked hard. Appreciate all his contributions and his staff as well. Many of his staff will not be back, but I do appreciate what they contributed. So when you started the process then of you said you knew Steve wasn't gonna be back before it was announced, and you start the process of searching for a general manager. What was that like to start to put feelers out there because you had obviously internal candidates and ended up going with an external candidate. Yeah, as you know, I put Adrian Wilson and Quentin Harris in a sort of co general managers on an interim basis, asked them to each take part of the general manager's roles. They end up sort of combining them, which was fine too, But I thought it was you know, it was it was good to be talking to people. I wasn't going to talk about it very broadly. I want to just talk to people that I trusted, knowing that it wouldn't get out by just talking to that group of people. And then when it became clear that we were getting real close to the end of the season, that's when I invited both Adrian and Quinton to interview for the position, and as well, I had spoken to Jerry Reese even before the season ended, former general manager of the New York Football Giants. Jerry Reese, Can you talk about that a little bit in terms of just your relationship with him and how far you guys go back. Well, we go way back. I mean he's he was with the Giants for a long long time, and he has two Super Bowl rings and now he's been out of football for quite a few years. But I wanted to speak to him. I in speaking to Rod Graves, who heads up the Fritz Power Alliance, he was very high on Jerry, as so was John Mara, the owner of the New York Giants. So I thought it was it was great to get together with him. I flew after the game in Atlanta, I flew out to Nashville and met him in his town and we spent about three hours together and just asked him to keep it, keep it wrapped up and confidential and U and then we had him back out when you know, we started the process formally the following week. When did Monty Austin Ford's name first come up? And how did it come up? It came up Probably the first person that that spoke about Monty was was John Mara, another good friend in the in the league, uh, and I heard about him from other owners who had spoken with him. I spoke to Robert Kraft, about him, his name. You know, he had worked for the Patriots for many, many years, and Robert was very very high on money, and so there were his name came up pretty early and uh and and we actually spoke, We had a lengthy phone call one one evening before he even came to town for the interview and uh and I really got a sense of Money then, and it was it was very impressive. What were some of the things that stood out to you right away about Money, whether it's his personality or how he viewsed the game. I think he's he's got that. Uh. You know, we've talked about our our system, which is about to be our former system, a best player available for for draft and things along those lines. He comes from a completely different system and I would call it the New England system with a little bit of a modification. And that's where they're looking for specific type of players with specific types of characteristics, and they're not worried about what everybody else thinks. And um and when you look at New England, I've done a great job of identifying players with physical characteristics, with mental characteristics, with high football intelligence and then having success out of that system. So we talked quite a bit about that. We talked about what kind of coach he wanted to have in place. I think it really showed me how prepared he was because he had already interviewed a number of different coaches. So he went through this interview process last year and he realized, Hey, I'm putting names out there that I just know reputationally or I've only met a few times and haven't really spoken to. So he took his offseason, He took June and July and set up zooms with a bunch of the coaches that were on his list and some that weren't on his list, and some of those coaches rose to the top. Jonathan Gannon was one of them. Some of those coaches were eliminated based on those interviews. So he really did a screening process before he was even named general manager of any team. And I thought it really showed how dialed in he is to you know, getting ready to be a general manager. That he was ahead of it and he wasn't going to waste any team's time by saying, well, let's go talk to these folks. He had already done it. Everybody on his list was somebody he had already vetted and he wanted to get deeper into the Into the interview, you mentioned that the new system of evaluating players is very similar to what he had in New England. So you've been in those draft board rooms now for twenty five years. Will this will the room and the grading system and the board, Will that look completely different than it's looked in the past. You think, well, you're kind to say, been looking at it for twenty five years. It's probably much longer than that. That is embarrassingly long because of at a young age when I walked into the into the draft room in the nineteen seventies and eighties. Our system is pretty much the same as it was in the seventies and eighties. But in the seventies and not until the later in the eighties, the data that was written on our cards was handwritten and it was just on a card, and it was stored in somebody's notebook. And today that that same data is stored in a computer and printed off on a printer, which didn't exist in the seventies and eighties. So it's kind of funny. We modified it a few times, one around off field character and a big, big upgrade around Danny Green when Danny Green came in and had us reorganized the board, and this is the way many of the teams do it. It's just it's like flipping from a three foard defense to a four three defense. We're just changing systems here. It's not going to look much different this year. But because what Moni didn't want to do is because a lot of scouting has happened with scouts, is to sort of change the language and change the system midstream. So he's adapting to how we have been grading, and then he's going to adapt that and adapt the board. But going into the twenty twenty three college football season, we're going to make that full change as soon as the draft is over, and then the twenty four draft will look a lot like a modified New England, modified Tennessee system, because this is the system they input at Tennessee. As well. Your conversations with Monty about the current roster when you were trying to make the decision about Monty, what were some of the things that stood out to you that impressed you about some of the things he had to say about the current roster that you have. Well, I think number one, we spent a lot of time talking about Kyler and what type of offense we should be running and how to protect him and where we should be spending our money. We've got a lot of money hide up in a couple of different positions, and so I think you're going to see that change. We're gonna I think you're going to see us beefing up the offensive line, the defensive line. We've got to get help at corner. We've got to get a just more protection for Kyler, and then we've got to be able to rush the passers, especially in the in the NFC West. So I think you're going to see a lot of a lot of changes, but they're not going to happen immediately, and they will happen over the next several years is we get opportunities to build on the draft class that's coming up. You mentioned about Adrian and Quinton their roles as co interim general managers leading up to the end of the season. What were the conversations like with those difficult conversations when you had to say, look, I'm going to go in a different direction. We're going to go with an external candidate. Yeah, I think they understood it's part of the business, and both of them want to be gms, and certainly we're hoping, but I think, you know, what I want to do is make the best decision for the Cardinal's long term and sometimes that is a tough decision relative to the people that were applying for it internally. And same thing with Vance Joseph, who had interviewed for the head coach position. You know, you'd love to be able to promote from from within, but what we needed to do is make the best decision for the Cardinals and what was the best decision for us? And I thought that was Monti assin Fort and I thought that was Jonathan Gannon. One of the other candidates that you spoke with that you mentioned at your press conference in terms of general manager was Matt Harris. Can you just talk about you Matt, who assume is going to stay with the organization his future, and what impressed you about Matt and what he does for the team. Matt does a great job with our cap and with some other things that we do here in terms of the administration of the of the roster, and really helped helped out Quentin and Adrian during Steve's absence, and so he did all three of those guys really stepped up, and before December when it was clear that Steve wasn't well, and so they stepped up in a great way. But I'd say about matt Is, I've been around a lot of CAP guys, and he's right up there at the top. I mean, he does a great job for us. He understands the rules, he understands the CAP, he understands the agent community, and he understands how we need to maximize things. And I think more importantly, Monie loved him when he had a chance to sit down and have the full conversation with him. Those guys are going to work together great. You talked about being able to have conversations with people that you trust in the business and keeping those conversations confidential. You guys have always done a really good job with that. I go back to the DeAndre Hopkins trade. When all of a sudden, I see it on Twitter. It's an Adam Schefter tweet him, I'm looking okay, it's a blue check. That really happened. DeAndre Hopkins is coming to Arizona. So you've obviously have been able to build those relationships where things don't get leaked. And it was interesting because Jonathan Gannon's name, at least publicly, wasn't really out there until the end. You guys did a good job of because you mentioned Monty obviously liked Jonathan and some of your early conversations with him. Is that accurate that he was somebody all along that you guys had your eye on. Yeah, that long telephone conversation, we sort of jumped ahead and okay, well who's on your list? And Jonathan Gannon one of number one on his list. There were others. Aaron Glenn was another trying to think of all the names that were on that list, but Aaron Glenn was up there too, the defensive coordinator at at Detroit who came in and did a great job as well. So I think that that, you know, again, Monny was the most prepared general manager candidate that came in, you know, in terms of being ahead of the job. Nobody else hadn't done these interviews of the coaches, and I was just super impressed by that. Showed a lot of a lot of foresight and and also weeding out people that they might be a name that everybody's buzzing about, but you know, he eliminated some of those folks that might have been not might have been they were on other people's lists, and so it was interesting. It it was a great process to go through. The other three people that I want to thank is internally, you know, I ask three people from our executive senior executive staff to help out. Lisa Manning, who's been with the team for since two thousand before the stadium vote, and runs all of our marketing and business operations. Mark Dalton, our senior vice president of media Relations, been with us since two thousand and four. And then Sean Mayo, who is our chief people officer, does all of our human relations and does an amazing job, and he's entering his third season with us. And the three of those folks really helped me. And we all came to the same conclusions but from maybe different angles, and they all contributed a lot, and I want to thank them. And then I think, in the backdrop of all this, Dave we talked about at the top of the interview, we were preparing for a Super Bowl at the same time, and there were, you know, on my staff, Melissa Gaspard, Brittany new heiselm so many other folks that helped out to help make this an amazing super Bowl, not just for you know, the valley and the participating teams in the NFL, but also for all of our partners, our employees, everybody that was able to participate in this. I think it turned out to be an amazing um, an amazing weekend. Thank God the weather, you know, cooperated. But we were able to do all this, and I didn't. I wasn't able to focus on some of the detail, not some many of the details. And there were a lot of great members of our staff that that picked up the slack for us and allowed us to stay focused on the tasks at hand, which was first general manager and then head coach search. And after the Super Bowl you meet with Jonathan Gannon, he's named the next head coach of the Cardinals. What was your first impression of I know he likes to go by JG. What was your first impression of JG? It was very positive. He talked a little bit about our high school experience. Both of us went to Jesuit high schools, Jesuit educated where you learn to be men and women for others. You know that we called it men for others at our high school all boys, and so we hit it off there and that was a joked. I'm like, man, you're talking about your high school school experience as much as I do. And then his huge amount of energy and passion for the game. He came off of, you know, a really tough Super Bowl loss, and he showed up the next afternoon here at the training facility raring to go, and he just took over the room and it's like, Okay, this is what we're talking about. This guy has the ability to lead, He has the ability you know, to you know, keep the conversation moving and and that was pretty cool. What about his philosophy was it something right away that clicked with you in terms of how you view where this organization needs to go in terms of coaching philosophy and player philosophy. Yeah. No, I think he outlined a great plan for the offense and particularly for Kyler Murray and was very excited about him, and most of the candidates were. There were no there was a lot of noise out there that people were turned off by him. Not at all. I think people, you know, uh, realize what a great dual threat talent he is. He's got this injuries working through, so that's something any coach was going to have to manage will do that. And then on the defensive side of the ball, it was just no question what he did in Philadelphia. Obviously, we've got to rebuild that defensive line, especially with J. J. Watt retiring, but I have confidence that we're going to We're gonna be able to do that with Monny and and JG working together. And then i'd say back, I'm not sure I've fully answered the question about the secrecy of our interest in JAG. Part of what we didn't want to do was disturb any of the coaches that were in the playoffs actively. So it was not just Jonathan Gannon, but also lou Anna Rumo who was still participating in in the playoffs with the Cincinnati Bengals. We didn't put in their names until after they were eliminated and then and that's what we did with Jonathan, and word got out a little bit over the weekend because I don't know why, but it did. But it didn't distract him until we hit him Monday morning with the permission request to speak to him about our head coach position. His energy, I have not met him, but his energy seems off the charts. I heard somebody say the other day they were in they were in the building at like six in the morning, and they happened to walk by his office and they can hear him in They're going, yeah, that's awesome. I guess he was watching film and talking himself. I don't know if he was on a zoom with somebody, but he's got incredible energy. Everybody says, yeah, he's got a voice, and so he can hear him down the hall. When he's he can, he'll fill up the room. And there's just no question about it. But I think he was doing zooms because they were doing zoom interviews. Like as soon as I mean, as soon as the press conference was over, he sent his family off back to the Arizona Biltmore, where we put him up for the weekend so they can enjoy their time out here over the long weekend and and sort of celebrate their dad's success. But he was ready to go to work right away, and they did, and so he was bang, bang, bang through a bunch of back to back zooms. Was the defense versus offense? Was that even part of the conversation between you and Monty when it came to looking at head coach or it didn't matter. We want the best guy. We want the best guy. My personal you know interest, and call it a bias, was we should probably have somebody who's on the offensive side of the ball, but I want to keep an open mind. And it was pretty clear, especially when you look at the final candidates that we had. Three of them were defensive side of the ball and it was just one, Mike Kafka, who was on the offensive side of the ball, because we just felt like those were the best leaders out there, those four. Do you also think there's something too if we have a defensive head coach, we're going to have somebody on the offensive side who is completely focused on Kyler and the offense and not about head coaching, managing the defense, just all the other things that go along with being a head coach. Well, I think he's going to be in the traditional head coach role. He's going to let his defensive coordinator do his thing, He's going to let his offensive coordinator do his thing, and I think he will probably spend maybe a little more time on the offense because of all the work that we need to do there to really get it right and also to man the you know, the phase in of who's starting the season will it be, will it be Kyler or not? And installing that offense. So I think and also is showing uh, not only um Drew, but also you know, our offensive coordinator, but also Kyler. Here's what I would do as a defensive coordinator to attack this offense. And I think that'll be a really important important thing to keep us sharp. You mentioned Drew Drew pets Ng thirty five years old, Nick Rowlis, twenty nine year old, defensive coordinator. I don't know if you've had a chance to get to know each guy yet. What are your thoughts on on those two guys? Extremely sharp, decisive, high energy guys, soldiers that are going to go out there and just absolutely execute and raise that standard that we all want. I mean, I'm I'm excited about these two leaders and and and all the other members of the staff that I've met. I think JG did a really good job because he similarly had been thinking he knew he was going to be a head coach at some point. He interviewed for it, you know, last year, and you know, he knew if he didn't get this position, he was going to be interviewing next year. He had already had it in his mind several folks that he wanted to approach, and so when he went through his plan, it was just bing, bing bing. It's interesting you've used the word leader leadership a lot in talking about all these candidates, and I think there were some times over the last few years where when things weren't going well, you know, we all kind of like, well, where is the leadership, whether it was you know, from the coaching staff or the players. So how much of you're thinking when you're going through the process of hiring a GM and a coach and then the assistance and what you're going to look at for players is hey, we need the leadership and accountability to be better in that locker room. That was the absolutely the number one thing I was focused on is, you know, lots of people can do the x's and knows it's okay. Making sure that we raise the bar here and that we are absolutely getting the players to perform at the highest level on every single play. And you know, you heard j G talk about it. Everybody is results oriented. Everybody wants you know, hey, everybody wants to win. But winning starts with the process and it's about doing a great job on Monday, doing a great job on Tuesday, doing a great job on Wednesday, and everything you do builds up to Sunday, and it starts in the off season. So what he's trying to do is instill that as a culture and with our leaders in the locker room and make sure those guys take over his words and take over because he's a culture builder. There's no question about that. He did it at Philadelphia, he did it at Minnesota, and I think what you'll see is he's going to do it here in Arizona, and I think it's gonna be pretty cool to watch us unfold over the next several months. I've got one more coach question. I'm want to get to the players first. I think this has been great. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you're very appreciative of your transparency, because this is outstanding for fans to be able to hear kind of take him inside, the information that they get that they can't get otherwise, to be able to know kind of what you were thinking when you went through the process of hiring a GM and a coach, and it's all great stuff. Jeff Rogers staying on somebody who's been Now this is the third staff he's been on. How important was that to you and to MONI to have Jeff here, given his role helping Cliff in terms of managing the clock and then also obviously being in charge of special teams. I think, and it's it's just not that Jeff Rogers who will stay on board, but there are others on the staff that will be staying on board. And I'm excited about it because he is one of the better special teams coordinators in the league. And I think, let's do what's best for the Cardinals. Do what's best for us to have success on the field, and to have it right away. There was no reason to start over, you know. I was going to let jg make his decision on everybody on the staff, which he's done. But what I really wanted to do was to m you know, make sure we retain the best of the of the staff that we could. So Kyler, you talked obviously about his importance. We all know this team is going to go as far as Kyler takes him. It's how it works in the NFL. It's about the quarterback. How's his rehab going. I think his rehab is going very well. I think he's ahead of schedule and he is in here every day, and so it's been great to see him when I've been able to pull my head out of the meetings and run down and get a bite to eat, being able to stop by and see him, and he's fired up, and I know that he and JG have already kicked off a great relationship and uh, and so it's it's pretty cool. How involved was Kyler? Did you pick his brain at all or tell him, Hey, this is what I'm thinking when you're going through the process of both GM and coach. Yeah, so it was just not Kyler, but other players. I had, you know, multiple commun unications with Kyler, just not only checking in on how he's doing, but you know, he let me know who he liked, and so did other players in our locker room. You know, zach Ertz was here and heard from Buddha. I heard from quite a few of our leaders about you know, who they had worked with before, what they had been hearing and things like that. And so I just wanted to take all input and try to get a three hundred and sixty degree view of every candidate, whether it was general manager or head coach. Do you think that's rare? That sounds rare to me that an owner would be not only talking sounds. You talked to other owners, you talked to other gms, you talked to obviously people within the organization. You had people that you counted on that are part of your senior staff that are not on the football side, that you had involved, and you're talking to players. I gotta think that's pretty rare. Well, I don't know if it's rare, but I just felt like, you know, we talk about due diligence, what does that mean. It's like, hey, let's let's try to gather as much information. And we were doing it from from people in the football world, you know, and from NFL films to Nike to other folks that just have touch points with different people in the football world, whether it's general managers or head coaches. So we had we were taking every bit of input we could get from the league office, etc. And that's what was great about having Mark Dalton, Lisa Manning, and Seawan Mayo part of it because they all have their own networks and we were tapping into everybody's including some members of the media who had great things to say about different candidates. At this point, you mentioned Kyler's ahead of schedule. Do we have a sense of at this point, I know it's late February, the season doesn't start for a long time, but do you get a sense that he's going to be ready on this particular date or in this particular window or can't say it, you know, I think it's gonna be earlier than you know, this mid season, so hopefully it's towards the beginning of the season. But you know, I don't want to put any specific dates because there could be setbacks. There could be the progress could slow. But I think right now, I mean, he's a young man, it looks like he's a fast healer. Things are going well. Let's hope that keeps going the way it is and then that there are no setbacks as he comes back. And I think that's one of the things that the other areas that Moni is going to be looking at. And same thing what JG is, Okay, what is the best thing we can be doing around sports science? Our return to play, our training room and getting the players back. And we call it return to play, but it's return to practice and play. So that there are not setbacks as we get back onto the practice field, and there could be a quick ramp up period that doesn't have setbacks. There's a lot of science around that now, and I think that's an area that we're going to build out the organization as well as we go forward over the next several several weeks. What do you envision for Kyler not just for this year when he comes back, but long term with Jonathan Gannon as a head coach, true pet Sing as the offensive coordinator, in terms of maximizing his skill set, Well, I think what we're gonna do is is try to take some of the pressure off of him and then put him in position where when it's time for him to make a play, whether it's with his arm or with his feet, that he's going to be in a position to do that. But also take some of the pressure off of him. I think the way the offense was before, he had a choice on almost every play we ran, and so we were making him think too much and we were making him put too much pressure on him. And what we need him to do is to play faster and to play with that confidence that will come with Okay, I don't have to get every first down I can hand the ball off. I know they're going to put him under center quite a bit, and that's going to take some of the pressure off because the pass rushers won't be able to get after him as quickly as if he's in the gun. So I think, I think this will be a This will be good for him, and I think it'll be good for us, and I think we're gonna have more production on off It's interesting because you know Wolf. I'm sure you probably heard Wolf say it, whether it's during a broadcast round to show the blending of you know, the blending of the old and the new. Michael, I mean, you've known Wolf forever, going back to when you were a ball boy and he was a player on the team exactly. And it feels like the way Wolf looks at the game, being physical, being multiple, kind of the Eagles blueprint and how they ran their offense that in how Cleveland to Cleveland was very unique. Did a lot of under center and then you saw a lot of you know, shotgun and depending on whether it's Rosetta Watson a quarterback, do you see the Cardinals kind of being like that where it is really a true blending of the old and the new, as Wolf would say, I think so. And I also think you know, we're going to be we're gonna be not just looking at the new in the NFL, but we're gonna be looking at the new. And Jonathan Gann has said as press conference the way football is played in the NFL in twenty twenty three will be different than twenty twenty two, and so you have to be adaptable. There's no question in my mind that we're going to be looking to what's done at the college game because that really helps influence the NFL game. And so they're going to be things that are being done that the players, especially this new crop of players will bring in from twenty twenty three's college classes that we're we're going to be doing a lot of things differently, and so I'm looking forward to seeing everything that's developed, especially after we finish with the draft and with free agency. So, if Kyler isn't available to start the year, what's your sense organizationally of the comfort level with Colt? Well, the Colt's coming back from an injury as well, that he is going to limit him during the off season, So I think, you know, we've got to and I'm not as dialed in on where his recovery is, so that's going to be another, um, you know, set of dynamics that that that Drew and JG are going to have to work through in terms of Okay and Monnie, you know, or we're going to definitely need a quarterback that can help us out during the the OTAs and everything, and we can't put it all on Colt when he comes back. But I know Colt can still play. I know he feels he can still play, and he's he's, he's he's he's still got a lot of gas left in the tank and I've got a lot of confidence in him. So we'll see exactly what the plan is. That's not for me to figure out. That's for those guys to figure out. But I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. So I'm guessing part of that plan could be free agency, could be drafting a quarterback at some point. I assume we're not ruling either of those out. I don't think we rule anything out. Yeah, No, We've got to keep all options on the table, and I know Monty and JG and Drew will be exploring that. But you know, we need to we need to see how the recoveries are coming along and then figure out what's the best option for us. Can you go back, you touch a little bit on other areas of need and some things maybe philosophically that'll be different in terms of what you guys are going to address here with free agency and drafting. What do you think is foremost? I think probably number one is the staff. Getting the staff in place, and I think we've done that. It's almost done. I would say about eighty five to ninety percent done. Then I think clearly it's offensive line defensive line. You know, we've got a lot of skill players in different positions, and then trying to figure out what we're doing around draft and free agency. But it's it's gonna be offensive line defensive line because we've got to build that offensive line so we can get back to running the ball, protecting Kyler and defensive line, especially in the NFC West, we're going to need a really good defensive line, and you know, with the retirement of JJ Watt, we've got a big hold of field there. We got to see if we can get Zach Allen resigned and which we're interested in doing and get that going. And I think he wants to be here, So I think there's gonna be a lot of things on the to do list here. The first thing is next week is is the combine, So everybody's going to be heading back to Indianapolis for that. You talked a bunch during the multiple press conferences about being the best team in the division, you know sometimes, and I feel like I've heard you say that all the time. I don't know if that's something that's always been because obviously, you win your division, you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. Has that always been your focus? Hey, we got to look at the other three organizations and say how can we be the best of those four as opposed to looking at the other thirty one organizations. Yeah, I think it all starts in the division. If you can win your division, then you host a home playoff game, and if you're really good, then you get a chance to have a buy that super wild card weekend. And so what the whole plan is if we really are serious about, you know, winning, we've got to be able to win the NFC West and that's a tall order. There's some great coaches, great quarterbacks, and great players and teams and organizations and so we've got to build an outstanding organization here, which I think we're doing so. Over the last you know, month and a half, you've been, as I mentioned the top of the podcast, as busy as is anybody in sports. M the Super Bowl week. What were some of the highlights for you, h, Not just you know, the interview process with with Monty and then you know, leaning up to look into the candidates for head coach, but in terms of the event itself, what were some of the highlights for you? Wow? There were so many, Um, you know, I think, uh, it was great to be able to be a part of many different meals, luncheons, dinners and things along those lines. Um. You know. First was Thursday, the Fritz Polder Alliance had their awards luncheon. It was great to see so many leaders in that room. H Friday was the Hall of Fame luncheon where they honored my grandmother, Violet Bidwell, the first female owner in NFL history and h one of the first in the world, and celebrate her and her success. And then I'd say, you know, just being able to I had a bunch of friends come in town. We had a blast, you know, little bits of time on Friday night and Saturday night as well, but you know, seeing all the other owners. We hosted a dinner party down at the Science Center in downtown Phoenix and had a huge tent and had all the teams there, the commissioner, the leaders of all the different networks and some of the Cardinals partners as well. There had a beautiful dinner and that that was one where Missy Gaspard and the rest of the you know, the event's crew here helped plan that dinner. And then we went across the street inside of the Phoenix Convention Center for the post party, which was we had a party and that was I called Lisa Mannings Party. That's so we had a fantastic party. I believe you were there, I think because we invited the whole staff. I know, I was in EUGENEO. I went from New Orleans to gene Oregon and got back like late because yeah, I'm sorry, that's that time of year with college basketball, NBA everything else going on. Good problem to have. But Gwen Stefanie was our entertainment and she just rocked it out. It was awesome, and so we had a great time Saturday night and then game Day. The whole weekend was beautiful. The other thing that I had the honor of doing again was participating as Vice Chairman of the Arizona Commerce Authority in our Visiting CEO program. In twenty fifteen, Governor Doocey and I teamed up invited fifty different companies that were seriously about expanding or relocating to Arizona. We landed twenty of those fifty companies, over two billion dollars of investment, tens of thousands of employees at high paying jobs with benefits. This time around, I teamed up with Governor Katie Hobbs and we I think we had seventy CEOs this time around, same visits CEO program, with different with different companies this time around, and I felt really good. Saturday afternoon, she and I and Sandra Watson, who heads up the Arizona Commerce Authority, we had what I call corporate speed dating, and it was twenty minute meetings with multiple companies, trying to pitch them to come to Arizona. What can we do to close out this deal? And so I think we're going to land a bunch of those I felt really good about those meetings. Governor Hobbs, who doesn't have a background in economic development, did a great job in those meetings helping us. You know, it's the sales pitch. It's like corporate free agency. It's you know, you're trying to love up on these folks and get them to commit to Arizona. So I think we're going to land a bunch of those. So that was another big highlight of the weekend. And then the game was amazing Rihanna's halftime show. The stadium looked beautiful. There were so many good things that happened there. We had so many great leaders and partners in the building, and I think the campus looked amazing. Sportsman's Park at State Farm Stadium, it was just so much bigger than it was in twenty fifteen, probably three times the amount of parties happening on the campus there. It was amazing. You've hosted multiple Super Bowls. I assume you want to and will host more. And obviously one of the draws for the Super Bowl is the stadium. How have you been able to keep it modern? The investments that you guys have been able to make and will continue to make in the stadium so since twenty fifteen, we've made over two hundred million dollars worth of investments. And when these investments are all about fan experience. So it's upgrading the Wi Fi to the latest technology. It's installing five G capability inside the stadium and outside the stadium, the parking lots, the Great Lawn, the South Lawn, everywhere. It is modifying some of the sidewalks to make it easier to get into into the stadium. It's upgrading the security, it's upgrading the sound system. We invested in the Great Lawn to create a fan pavilion out with permanent restrooms and a beer garden. We a lot of talk last year around the bed MGM Sportsbook, the first NFL stadium, So we built new buildings. We invested in the pregame experience. We've invested in the in game experience, new video boards. I mean two hundred million dollars. We you know, there's more to be done, and we'll continue to upgrade and make the fan game day experience and the pregame experience to be the best it can be. And we're an organization. There's some sports teams out there that you know, let their buildings fall behind. We're one that constantly is investing in it. And I know our fans recognize it because they see it. And it's just not upgrading the club area or the suites where the high end customers are, but it's the entire experience. Anybody that's coming into that venue is noticed the big upgrades that we've made throughout the entire building and the entire parking lot area around the stadium. Well, somebody that is in a lot of stadiums, a lot of I see the ones that do lag behind that start out great. And I'm not just saying this because you're sitting right here, but it State Farm Stadium remains at the top in terms of the venues that I that I see, and I see NBA College Football and obviously all the NFL ones. So yeah, no, I think I think we've done a great job of literally keeping up with the Joneses to the other stadium I like, is is the one in Minneapolis, the Viking Stadium is US Bank Stadium is amazing as well, and Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium is awesome. But there's no better stadium than State Farm Stadium, especially when the Red Sea is rocking and We're going to get back to that. Winning football games at home is extremely important to me, and that was something that I really emphasized with jg and with Monni. We're going to get back to that. Well, this has been great again. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you're excited. I said in one of the interviews I did early on and they asked me about, you know, my thoughts. I said, you know, I think Michael made a pretty big statement going outside the organization for a general manager, the hiring of Jgum. I think if you're a Cardinal fan, you've got to be excited about the direction that Michael's not messing around. I guess is how I put it. There was a lot of noise out there, Dave, and you saw some of the stuff. It was just nonsense that people just you know, blah blah blah, and we ignored it and it was like, we weren't going to hit the easy button. We were going to make sure that we did what we needed to do to make the best decisions for this organization going forward. And I think we did and time will tell, but I'm excited about the start we're off too. Now. Well, I know fans appreciate that and also are appreciative of your candor today. Thanks Mike, appreciate you, appreciate Dave Wow. A lot to unpack from our conversation with Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill. Again, if you're a Cardinal fan, I think you really appreciate the candor, the honesty, the transparency about the past, present and future of the Arizona Cardinals. I think the whole process of the draft that's going to change over the next few years that really stood out to me. And they're change in philosophy from what the Cardinals had been doing to what they're going to be doing going forward, which mirrors what the New England Patriots have done and been so successful at over the last two decades. The update on Kyler Murray's health was newsworthy, as well as the fact that Colt McCoy is going to be limited during the off season and that could necessitate something through either the draft or free agency in terms of bringing in another quarterback to get the Cardinals through the off season. Again, appreciate Michael's time and hopefully if you're a Cardinal fan, you got a lot out of this conversation. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. You can expect over the next several months to hear from Cardinals GM Moni asen Fort and head coach Jonathan Gannon, as well as a lot of others on the Dave Pash Podcast or Thanks to you for listening. You can follow us on Twitter at Pashpod. You can also rate us and review us. Tell us what you think by going to your podcast platform. Thanks again to Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. Thanks to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast