Practice as usual? Cardinals treating joint practices with Colts as any others

TEMPE — If there’s one thing to know about Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon entering Year 2 on the job, it’s his love for joint practices and the added reps they bring.

For the second time in his tenure, Gannon and the Cardinals are setting up shop somewhere other than Tempe or Glendale. Last year, they traveled to Minnesota for joint practice work with the Vikings. In 2024, Arizona is off to Indianapolis for a couple rounds with the Colts.

Aside from Saturday’s 16-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints, this week marks one of the first times the Cardinals will get the chance to line up against someone other than themselves. And as we’ve seen around the league, getting two teams together for an extended period of time can lead to some disagreements (and hefty fines).

Gannon, however, is expecting business as usual from his end.

“They’re going to practice the exact same way they have been practicing,” Gannon said Monday. “That’s how (Colts head coach Shane Steichen) and I are going to do it. Just got off the phone with him this morning. It’s going to be a good two days of work. I’m very excited to get on a plane and go.”

That being said, the next couple days of joint practices are bound to bring some added juice to the equation.

“Joint practices show you where you are as a team and as a player,” cornerback Starling Thomas V said Monday. “The competition level is always higher in practice than it is in the game. It’s going to be hot out there, it’s going to be muddy. Tensions are going to be rising, because you get to go against another color. But it’s going to be a fun practice for us and we’re going out there and expect to play at a high level and win each day.”

It’s an important piece to Gannon’s preseason puzzle and gives Arizona’s coaching staff a controlled environment to continue teaching up players, especially armed with game tape from Saturday’s loss.

“I liked where our mode of play was in the game, but the things we need to get better and uptick is technique against different people and I would say execution of just schematic things within each group. That’s probably always going to be one of the answers,” Gannon said.

“It’s cool because it’s not technique going Cards vs. Cards … I want to see technique show up against different opponents. I think that’s a good barometer for where we’re at. Can we do what we’re coached to do consistently?”

This week’s joint practices also mark the only times quarterback Kyler Murray — and potentially other Cardinals starters — will see any preseason action against another team ahead of Week 1’s showdown against the Buffalo Bills.

And while Gannon and the rest of the franchise feel confident where Murray is after a full, healthy offseason, knowing he’ll register some reps against the Colts certainly played a part in the head coach’s decision to sit Murray throughout the preseason.

Next stop, Indy.

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