The Arizona Cardinals took an unusual route on Wednesday, and they did it with a clear purpose in mind.
Instead of treating the day before their preseason opener like a light tune-up, the Cardinals held a full practice in pads before boarding a plane to Cleveland for Thursday’s Hall of Fame Game against the Carolina Panthers in Canton, Ohio. That kind of setup is rare. Teams usually don’t run a full practice the day before a game, and they definitely don’t do it in full pads.
Head coach Mike LaFleur laid out the plan before the workout.
"That first group (starters) will be out there," he said, indicating that running backs Jeremiyah Love and Tyler Allgeier would split reps. "It's full speed, padded.
It's a practice for us. We'll get that quality work in."
The thinking was simple: the starters were not going to play in the preseason opener, so Wednesday became their chance to get real football work without taking game snaps. LaFleur said around 30 players on offense and defense would sit out Thursday’s game. The players who will be in action did not take part in the practice, since their reps will come under the lights in actual game action.
LaFleur said the Cardinals expect to get starters some work in next week’s preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders and again in the one after that.
Under normal circumstances, Wednesday through Friday are practice days, Saturday is a walkthrough, and Sunday is game day. This setup gave the starters a chance to stay locked in without it feeling like another day off.
And because the Hall of Fame Game is an extra preseason game, this likely won’t become a regular thing.
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