A new era of Cardinals football is about to unfold and it took the organization only one week to find the next front office leader to hopefully bring a Lombardi to the desert. The Arizona Cardinals announced Monday afternoon that they hired former Titans Director of Player Personnel, Monti Ossenfort.
Early in his career, Ossenfort spent time with the Houston Texans as a pro personnel intern and then joined New England as a personal assistant of Bill Belichik. After one year with the Patriots, Ossenfort returned to the Texans as a scouting assistant and the following year was promoted to college scout. Ossenfort returned to the Patriots in 2006 where he was re-hired as an area scout and worked his way up to director of college scouting.
During his tenure in New England, Ossenfort scouted players the likes of Jimmy Garopolo, James White, Jacoby Brissett, and Kyle Dugger. The Patriots also won four Super Bowls during Ossenfort’s time with the organization. After his long career with the Patriots, Ossenfort was hired as Director of Player Personnel by the Tennesee Titans in May of 2020.
During Ossenfort’s opening press conference, Bidwell discussed why Ossenfort was a good fit for the Cardinals and that he has a well-defined vision of turning the team around. His experience, along with the combination of his work ethic were all a factor in his hiring. After Ossenfort was introduced, he talked about his plan to create a collaborative structure within the organization and that everyone’s vision aligned on a new head coach for the Cardinals. Ossenfort talked about his time with the Patriots and learning under Coach Belichik and how his processes have helped him shape his own philosophies and values.
Ossenfort said that he ultimately wants to find focused, driven, and team-first players to compete and build on this team for years to come. He stressed that he wants to create systems and processes that are geared toward winning football games. Most notably, he also added that ego will not be tolerated and that the goal is to win and ultimately hold the Lombardi trophy. Ossenfort said that his focus is on changing the process and having a system that he and everyone in the organization can agree on. He wants to “turn over every rock” when it comes to finding and scouting players. He said that there is a lot of evaluating that will take place it comes to the roster and he wants to find the head coach that is right for the team.
There is a new era of Cardinals football and with the hiring of a new general manager, it is only a matter of days until there will be a new head coach to join him in the desert.
