The other element — and one that Brissett appreciates during this time of year — is playing against a different opponent.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid announced that the starters, including Patrick Mahomes, will play during the first quarter of Saturday’s game. While he did not provide an answer to how many snaps they would play, coach Jonathan Gannon shared that his starters will also play.
“We are going to get it because (Mahomes) is the best of the best,” Gannon said. “The guys are excited. I’m excited. One of the reasons is you want to play different people, and you want to play who you are going to play during the season. That’s what we are going to get on Saturday night, so it will be good for us.”
The starters playing in the preseason is one of the notable changes Gannon made compared to previous training camps. In quarterback Kyler Murray’s case, he is slated to play in his first preseason game since 2021. The Cardinals also had back-to-back padded practices for the first time since Gannon arrived to town.
Preseason games are certainly something that Gannon values when deciding how they will trim down the roster from 90 to 53 players. He puts those games in the same category as joint practices, which the Cardinals will take part in next week in Denver.
Unlike the regular season, there is no game-planning. So at the same time those aforementioned emotions rise for Brissett, so too will football instincts that Gannon has attempted to instill during camp.
“That’s what makes (preseason games) hard because you would never go into a game and not know ‘Who is this guy? What are they doing? What are their tendencies?'” Brissett said. “Let’s go see what our rules tell us to do and let’s go out there and execute. They may get us at times and we may get them, but let’s stay true to our rules.”