All around the league, teams are holding joint practices as they get ready for their preseason games. It is a way to change things up and give players someone else other than their own teammates to hit.
However, the Cardinals are not one of those teams.
They have not had joint practices since 2016 with the Chargers when they were in San Diego.
They wanted to do it but just couldn’t make it work. The summer heat here in Phoenix got in the way.
“We definitely did (look into joint practices),” head coach Kliff Kingsbury said Tuesday. “It’s a little warm in Phoenix. Not a lot of teams interested in practicing out here outside and we don’t have enough room for two teams to just have one field, and that’s what it comes down to.”
This makes complete sense but some might ask why the Cardinals don’t travel somewhere to hold a joint practice.
That happens to be because of the unbalanced preseason schedule. The Cardinals are at home for both of their first two preseason games. They will break camp after their second preseason game, against the Kansas City Chiefs.
At that point, they will return to the team facility in Tempe and prepare like a game week, so they wouldn’t have a joint practice. Training camp would be over.
The only way to have one would be in Glendale and, as Kingsbury noted, the practice would have to be outside.
Not even the Cardinals players are practicing outside in camp this year.
Next year, when they will presumably have two road games in the preseason, perhaps they will schedule something with another team where it isn’t as hot.
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