The Cardinals practiced against the Titans back in 2010, although that work came after the two teams played a preseason game. The Cardinals ended up playing the Bears in Chicago the following weekend.
The Cards also had joint work against the Chargers in San Diego in 2016, against the Chiefs in St. Joseph, Missouri in 2012, and in San Diego against the Chargers in 2000.
In a new NFL world where many teams – including the Cardinals – barely play if at all any of their key players, the joint work may be the closest facsimile available before the games that count.
“If you’re not going to play your starters, you at least want to line them up against a different team, a different player than they have faced for a month, to evaluate them and get them ready for the regular season,” Kingsbury said.
For the players, it may be a little more basic than that.
“I’m sick and tired going against our guys,” wide receiver Hollywood Brown said.
That doesn’t mean guys can’t get grumpy this week. Joint practices across the league have devolved more than a few times this month into fights and players being sent to the locker room. Kingsbury doesn’t like the idea, and there is little doubt the players on both sides will be warned against it.
Sometimes, though, it can’t be helped. “Let the chips fall,” tackle D.J. Humphries said.
Humphries does like the idea of the offense being able to operate against a defense that doesn’t have the cheat code that his teammates on defense have by this point in the preseason.
“It’ll be fun to go against somebody who doesn’t have all the keys or knows the names of our plays,” he said.
The top goal is still about health. Defensive end J.J. Watt won’t make the trip because he tested positive for Covid; there are other veterans who will not be able to go against the Titans. Not the game, when they wouldn’t play regardless. But in practice, which for some is the lone dress rehearsal left.
“I’ve watched Hard Knocks and stuff like that,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “I assume guys get chippy and physical. I’m going into it ready to compete and treating it like a game.”
