March 31, 2026, 1:51 p.m. MT

The Arizona Cardinals open Phase 1 of their offseason program on April 7 with strength and conditioning, but outside the building, it is unknown who will be guiding the players when they report.

The coaching staff section on the team website has no one listed for the sports performance staff, a group that had six people last year, five of whom were hired when general manager Monti Ossenfort was hired three years ago.

Those hired in 2023 were director of football performance Shea Thompson, head strength and conditioning coach Evan Marcus, and assistant strength and conditioning coaches Jason Benguche, Everett Gathron and Kyle Sammons, who was also the sports science coordinator.

Buddy Morris, who had been the head strength and conditioning coach, became senior conditioning coordinator and worked mostly with players rehabbing from injuries. Assistant strength and conditioning coach Mark Naylor was let go.

There was also a change at head trainer then with Tom Reed fired and replaced by Drew Krueger, who is still listed in the staff section for that job.

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The status of all six is unknown at this time, one week before players officially report.

Head coach Mike LaFleur mentioned after being hired that the team has to figure out how to keep players healthy and on the field. In several metrics, the Cardinals were at the top of the league list in 2025 with players missing games because of injuries.

Meanwhile, more than a month ago, while at the NFL combine, Ossenfort was asked about the topic and whether changes might be coming. He said, “We’re still working through that. We’ll have some clarity on that here soon. We’re looking at everything — our training staff, our strength and conditioning staff, how we train players, how we treat players. Last year was tough. It’s tough when you acquire players, and you try to build a team, and then those players that you’re counting on, for whatever reason, they are not out there.

“There are two things that suck about life in the NFL: It’s injuries and losing, and unfortunately, we suffered a lot of both last year, so we’ve got to find a way to overcome that. We’ve got to find a way to put our players in a better position to take care of them, to train them so that they can remain on the field. That has been a huge emphasis of what we’ve been doing and we’re going to continue to look at that as we go into the offseason and how we’re going to structure practice, how we’re going to train when the players come back in April. So that’s been a huge emphasis for us.”

So it was that LaFleur was asked at the league meeting Monday where things stand concerning what Ossenfort said. He talked only generally and did not divulge if there have been any changes.

“It’s a lot of conversations have been had and a lot of conversations to be had,” he said. “If anyone truly had that answer; everyone’s still trying to figure that out. There are plenty of guys (around the league) who are probably getting that same question right now. We’ve got a process that we’re going to go about in terms of how we feel like it’s going to help these guys get prepared. Some of it’s like, are they overtraining? Are they undertraining? Where’s that fine balance? Are they getting enough competitive work? Is a joint practice different than a normal practice just because your juices kind of get pumped up a little bit? What about the preseason?”

LaFleur noted that during a seminar Sunday at the league meeting, “They had a lot of great stats about playing in the preseason, not playing in the preseason, those joint practices I’ve referenced. And so that is a fluid conversation. We will talk about that daily.

“We like where we’re at right now in terms of how we’re going to attack this first phase and then I got to be fluid and ready to adjust based on what it’s showing us.”

As for who will be handling the important roles of guiding the players, perhaps we’ll be shown in the next week.

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