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Jonathan Gannon declines to meet with reporters during the 2023 draft

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The Arizona Cardinals move back up in the 2023 NFL Draft to get Paris Johnson Jr., a talented offensive tackle out of Ohio State.

Before the Cardinals unveiled their new uniforms, coach Jonathan Gannon boasted to a live audience, “I’m very comfortable talking to the media.”

Apparently, not comfortable enough.

As noted by Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com, Gannon didn’t speak to reporters a single time during any of the three days of the draft.

It’s not required by the league, but it’s commonplace. Even Bill Belichick does it. The goal is to parlay the plausible hope that comes from the use of draft picks into hype and excitement and other things that generate revenue for a team.

So why didn’t Gannon speak to reporters? Maybe he didn’t want to have to answer questions about his factually-inaccurate claim that the media in Philly wanted him fired for not blitzing enough. Or maybe he didn’t want to have to address his decision to take a call from Cardinals G.M. Monti Ossenfort at a time when such calls were prohibited by tampering rules.

Ossenfort has owned up to the blunder. But it takes two to telephone tango. Gannon knew or should have known he shouldn’t be talking to Ossenfort, but Gannon did anyway.

Reporters covering the Eagles would have plenty of questions about this. What else was Gannon doing to prepare for his next job when he should have been fully focused on finishing his last one the right way -- by holding a double-digit, second-half lead and delivering a Super Bowl win.

It’s also possible Gannon knows plenty about the story behind the story. It’s hard to buy the idea that the Cardinals self-reported the violation of a rule that gets violated all the time. There has to be something more to this, especially from the Eagles’ perspective.

It’s a potential minefield through which Gannon would have to tiptoe, if questioned publicly about it. By not meeting with reporters at all, Gannon ensures that he won’t say something that could make a bad situation even worse.