Aug. 18, 2026, 7:49 p.m. MT
The Arizona Cardinals will have a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers next week, their only joint practice of the preseason. If head coach Mike LaFleur had his way, they would have more. “I would love to do two joint practices,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“I’d love to do three joint practices.”
For him, “you get two joint practices in, that’s the equivalent of playing the two preseason (games), because it is a heightened, amped up environment. You’re not tackling, but it’s just, it’s the amped up environment that you get.”
Additionally, “for some reason, the data says if you end up having those joint practices, you have a lower injury risk going into the first four weeks of the season.”
So why didn’t the Cardinals have more joint practices this year? It wasn’t for a lack of trying. LaFleur tried scheduling them right after he was hired in February. He found out “a lot of those coaches that were already hired already had their joint practices.”
He learned that he will need to call and schedule those joint practices immediately following the season. He is aware why the Cardinals never host joint practices. There isn’t enough space at State Farm Stadium to handle two 90-man rosters, and practicing outside in August just isn’t something any team would want to do. Next preseason, the Cardinals will have two home games, so they will only have one road opportunity to hold a joint practice, unless they were to hold one in Flagstaff like they used to do before 2013.
The downside to not having joint practices is that players then need to get preseason reps. So that is why the Cardinals starters played last week and will likely play this weekend. Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify , YouTube or Apple Podcasts .
