Before the Cardinals hired Jonathan Gannon as their new head coach, they spoke to Sean Payton about their opening and they spoke to the Saints about the compensation that it would take to bring Payton to the desert.
In an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Thursday, Bidwill said the latter conversation kept things from progressing in Arizona. The Broncos wound up sending a 2023 first- and 2024 second-round pick to New Orleans in exchange for Payton and a 2024 third-round pick.
On Thursday, Bidwill said he thought that kind of compensation would have been too much of a hindrance to the Cardinals rebuilding effort that Gannon will now oversee.
“We spent a lot of time. The issues around coach Payton had nothing to do with the money, the compensation we would be paying him,” Bidwill said. “It was all the compensation, the draft compensation to the Saints. We just weren’t willing to go with what the Saints wanted us to give up. It would have been too costly to the team for us to rebuild that roster. It was really a series of tradeoffs. I still felt like we got great coaches out there that can get this team turned around. I think we were right when you look at JG.”
It’s not clear what the Cardinals were asked to give up — their third overall pick is more valuable than the 29th overall pick that Denver traded — but they’ll need to make the most of their draft assets in order to jumpstart the kind of turnaround Bidwill believes is possible with Gannon at the helm.
