Embattled Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon has a beef regarding the ability to teach his defensive players how to properly do battle during games.
Via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com, Gannon attributed tackling woes to rules that make it hard to practice tackling.
“How the rules are set up, it’s hard to get better as a tackler being in the NFL, I’ll say that,” Gannon told reporters on Wednesday.
Gannon said the Cardinals have tackling drills in “some way, shape or form because that’s one of the top skills of any defense player,” but he said there’s “no drill you can do that can mimic a game.”
And it all traces, in Gannon’s view, to rules that make it harder to teach and practice tackling.
“It’s set up how it’s set up, that’s fine,” Gannon said. “But to get better at a skill, you have to practice the skill. You practice skill, you can scale it, you can scale the tempo, you can scale how you do it, but to practice a skill, you need to practice the skill.”
The rule changes first emerged with the 2011 CBA negotiations, when the owners closed the deal by agreeing to various terms that ultimately cost the league no money — like reduced padded practices and other changes to the non-game workload.
“And so it’s a conundrum I think all defensive guys face and there’s risk-reward to trying to practice it with it however you set things up,” Gannon said. “But you definitely have to be a good tackling defense to play good defense.”
The reality is that the rules are the same for all teams, and that the rules have been restrictive for 15 seasons now. Also, plenty of teams have managed to teach their players how to tackle in games — or to find players who don’t need any specific drills to know how to do it at the professional level.
From tackling to blocking to everything else that goes into winning football games, the Cardinals collectively don’t have enough. After starting 2-0, they’ve gone 1-11. Which puts Gannon in position to get sacked when the season ends in 18 days.
Cardinals Clips
Falcons receiver Drake London was officially limited in his first practice since Week 11, according to the club’s injury report.
London has been sidelined for the last four games by a PCL sprain.
London has caught 60 passes for 810 yards with six touchdowns so far in 2025.
Falcons running back Bijan Robinson is also on the first injury report of the week, but he was a full participant despite dealing with an illness.
Cornerback Dee Alford was listed the same way, as a full participant on Wednesday despite dealing with an illness.
Receiver KhaDarel Hodge (shoulder), defensive back Mike Hughes (ankle), and edge rusher Leonard Floyd (illness) all did not practice. Quarterback Easton Stick did not practice either, though he was dealing with a personal matter.
With the Dolphins apparently moving on from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the next question becomes where his career will continue.
Plenty of teams will be looking for quarterbacks in the offseason. Tagovailoa has shown that he can operate an offense at a high level, when the play that’s called is there. When the play that’s called is stymied by the defense, things often go haywire.
Former Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard, who spent the early part of the season with the Colts before retiring, said after the Colts blew out the Dolphins in Week 1 that, if the first read is taken away, Tua slips into “panic mode.”
Whatever the label, he freezes. As the defender approaches, he doesn’t throw the ball away. He lacks the agility and speed to run away from the pressure and make something happen, like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and/or Lamar Jackson. The play just disintegrates.
And while the Dolphins have tried, in vain, to coach him toward a solution for a play that goes sideways, another coach may think that he can do what neither Brian Flores nor Mike McDaniel have been able to accomplish in six NFL seasons.
It all comes down to the options available for the teams that will be looking for a veteran quarterback. Those teams currently include, in our assessment, the Jets (he’s 7-0 against them), Steelers, Browns, Raiders, Vikings, Falcons, and Cardinals.
If the Dolphins cut Tua, he can sign with another team for the veteran minimum, like the Steelers did last year with Wilson. It’ll be a low-risk, high-reward option for a team that believes it can get more out of Tua than the Dolphins did.
And if enough teams are interested, perhaps a trade becomes possible. Even if the Dolphins would have to pay a lot of the money Tua is owed next year.
It’s not a crazy thought, even if it won’t be easy to get him to bail on a bad play before the bad play becomes a sack or a fumble or an interception. Given the good things he has shown he can do — good enough to get a $53.1 million per year contract — some team will be willing to give Tua a try.
Help is on the way for Atlanta’s offense.
Receiver Drake London will return to practice on Wednesday as the Falcons start their preparation to face the Cardinals on Sunday. Head coach Raheem Morris told reporters that London is still considered day-to-day with his knee injury.
“Looking forward to seeing how much he’ll be able to give us this week,” Morris said, via Marc Raimondi of ESPN.
London has not played since Atlanta’s Nov. 16 overtime loss to Carolina. In nine games this season, London has caught 60 passes for 810 yards with six touchdowns.
Additionally, Morris told reporters that linebacker Troy Andersen, defensive lineman Zach Harrison, and edge rusher Bralen Trice will not return from injury this season with just three games remaining.
Atlanta’s first full injury report of the week is due out later on Wednesday.
This year, Carson Palmer went back to school. And it went well.
In his first year as the head coach of his former high school, Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Palmer led the team to a state championship with a 47-13 blowout of De La Salle.
Palmer’s coaching staff includes former Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
As a student at Santa Margarita, Palmer won consecutive state championships. He also won the Heisman Trophy, was the first overall pick in the draft, and spent 15 seasons in the NFL with the Bengals, Raiders, and Cardinals.
Palmers is currently 17th on the career regular-season passing yardage list, with 46,247 yards.
Cardinals running back Bam Knight will not be able to return in 2025.
Arizona announced on Tuesday that the club has placed Knight on injured reserve in a series of roster moves.
Knight suffered an ankle injury during Sunday’s loss to the Texans.
He’s the latest in a string of injuries Arizona has been dealing with at the position with James Conner and Trey Benson already out for the year. Emari Demarcate also missed four games in 2025 due to injury.
Michael Carter is set to take over at the position in place of Knight.
Additionally, Arizona has placed receiver Andre Baccellia on injured reserve to end his 2025. He was able to fly back from Houston with the team after he was sent to the hospital following a collision on a kick return.
The Cardinals have signed receiver Jalen Brooks to the 53-man roster from the club’s practice squad, signed offensive lineman Marques Cox and safety Patrick McMorris to the practice squad, and released offensive lineman Trey Wedig from the practice squad.
The Cardinals lost for the 11th time in 12 games on Sunday and Jonathan Gannon is now 15-33 as the team’s head coach, but neither of those things are dimming Gannon’s confidence about his future in Arizona.
Gannon said on Monday that his focus is mainly on the team’s remaining games, but that he’s also asking “what do I have to look at with a critical eye and change” in order to have better results in the future. He passed on the opportunity to make a “pitch” for why the team should bring him back to make those changes, but he was adamant that he thinks he and the team are still on the right path.
“I believe in myself and I believe in our team,” Gannon said, via the team’s website. “We are at a dip right now. We’re going through some adversity, but I do believe in us and we will get out of the dip.”
It remains to be seen if Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill has the same level of belief in Gannon’s approach to the job, but neither the blowout losses in the last two games nor the team’s overall record since Gannon’s arrival does much to support the notion that the pieces are in place for a major turnaround in the near future.
The Texans won their sixth consecutive game, beating up on the Cardinals 40-20 on Sunday afternoon.
Houston improved to 9-5, while Arizona fell to 3-11.
Houston dominated from start to finish, taking a 10-0 lead before the Arizona offense ever took the field. The Texans outgained the Cardinals 399 to 307 and forced two turnovers.
It could have been worse. The Texans went only 3-of-6 in the red zone, and kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn had a 52-yard field goal attempt blocked on the final play of the first half.
C.J. Stroud went 22-of-29 for 260 yards and three touchdowns. He had touchdown throws of 57 yards to Nico Collins, 4 yards to Dalton Schultz and 4 yards to Collins.
Collins caught three passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns, and Schultz had eight receptions for 76 yards and a score. Woody Marks was credited with a 1-yard fumble recovery touchdown after the snap bounced to him in the wildcat formation, and he ran it in the end zone.
Jacoby Brissett was 27-of-40 for 249 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Trey McBride caught 12 passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns, giving him more than 100 catches and 1,000 yards for the second consecutive season.
Cardinals wide receiver Andre Baccellia was transported to a Houston hospital for further evaluation after being injured on a kickoff return late in the first half.
The Cardinals report that Baccellia was “alert and had full movement of all this extremities.”
He has a neck injury.
Baccellia was injured a the end of a 26-yard kickoff return with 1:38 remaining in the first half. He was stretchered off the field on a backboard but gave a thumbs-up as he left.
The Cardinals also updated injuries to linebacker Cody Simon (knee) and running back Bam Knight (ankle), ruling both out for the second half.
The Texans still have problems in the red zone, but today it won’t matter.
Houston leads Arizona 23-7 at halftime despite going 1-for-3 in the red zone. The Texans kicked field goals on drives that ended at the Cardinals 12 and the Cardinals 3, and Ka’imi Fairbairn had a 52-yard attempt blocked by Calais Campbell on the final play of the half.
The Texans had 35 plays for 230 yards in the first half, while the Cardinals had 26 for 94.
C.J. Stroud is 13-of-17 for 177 yards and a touchdown. He hit Nico Collins for a 57-yard touchdown on the second play, and after the Cardinals fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Texans led 10-0 before the Cardinals offense ever took the field.
Jacoby Brissett is 12-of-17 for 74 yards and a touchdown. Trey McBride has seven catches for 69 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown. Michael Carter has five carries for 23 yards, with Bam Knight in the training room with an ankle injury.
McBride now has 100 catches and 1,006 yards for the season, his second consecutive with at least 100 catches and 1,000 yards.
Cardinals special teamer Andre Baccellia was injured on a kickoff return near the end of the half. Medical personnel removed Baccellia’s facemask, strapped him to a backboard and placed him on a stretcher. He raised his hand and gave a thumbs-up as he left the field.
