Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur met with local and national reporters Monday at the NFL meetings at the Arizona Biltmore.

While discussing various topics, one of those was a look ahead to the summer and training camp.

Advertisement

The Cardinals have only one preseason home game and will play three away from the desert because of their appearance in the Pro Football Hall of Game in Canton, Ohio, on Thursday, Aug. 6.

Two days later, Larry Fitzgerald will be officially enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

By virtue of playing in the game, the Cardinals will report earlier to training camp than normal.

When LaFleur was asked about having those extra practices, he said, “I love it. You get extra days. So it’s good for Year 1. We’ll be smart with that again, but per the rules that we get, we’re gonna love getting guys in as we get ready for that preseason game zero.”

Advertisement

The preseason and regular schedules will be announced in May, but the Cardinals are expected to be in Green Bay for one of the final two games. Along with that will likely be joint practices with the Packers, which are coached by Mike’s brother Matt. In addition, former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon is now the team’s defensive coordinator.

Mike LaFleur said he isn’t able to confirm the arrangement, because the NFL has to approve the preseason schedule and joint practices, which are growing around the league.

But he also loves joint practices. He said Monday, “Hit somebody else. See somewhat of a different scheme. Now I know someone’s going to probably say, ‘Well, JG’s probably a similar scheme.’ They’re going to do whatever Green Bay’s going to do, and he’s going to put it to their players if it’s somewhat similar. But to me, it’s the scheme and all that, but we’re going against different players, different corners, blocking different guys.

“Training camp is long, and so for the same team to be hitting each other for that many weeks in a row, you’ve got to break it up. You just have to. Inevitably, you don’t know what’s going to happen after you keep hitting your own brother for a while. We’re going to hug each other after it, but when you’re going, you’re going. It should be preventative. So again, I love the joints just to break that thing up.”

Advertisement

He then noted other advantages for this particular team.

“I love our training camp setup in Arizona,” he said. “Why do I love it? We’re away from that heat. Which again, we gotta be smart. Like man, we’ll turn it up. At the same time, we gotta make sure that we’re taking care of these guys. And then we’re inside and on the grass. So that’s great for those guys as well. But at some point, we gotta go back home.

“We gotta go back to Tempe and kind of get going there. And so to be able to do that joint after we get back, they get out of some of that heat. And like I told some of the guys already, if we could go to Canada, we would. They just don’t have a team. So the next best thing is just going up to Wisconsin, but we can’t go to Seattle for obvious reasons.”

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.

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur talks early training camp, joint practices