Jonathan Gannon on Tuesday [I] was told, hey, this guy is very smart. He understands defenses. He gets it, but can he connect with the players? And I don’t think they got that question answered in their interview process. That was the big thing for Jonathan Gannon. He was a top-two contender from this search from the very jump. Jonathan Gannon has a lot of supporters in Dallas, whether it be Brian Schottenheimer, Clayton Adams or anyone else who has worked with him over the course of his career.
Bringing him in, it was with the understanding that he was going to have a pretty damn good shot at landing this job and certainly was ahead of a name like Christian Parker or Daronte Jones, but I don’t think he got that question answered to them. If he could connect with them on a personal basis A) and then B) being able to communicate to these guys what he wants out of them.
I think, looking back on the Matt Eberflus decision and what went wrong with Matt Eberflus over the last season, that is the thing that they point to the most is that, yes, they believed in him, they believed in what he was trying to preach, but he cannot get that communicated to the players.
As it started to get further down with Jonathan Gannon, I think they realized that it would be very similar to hiring Matt Eberflus again, from that perspective.