Colts begin joint practices with Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday

It’s a quick turnaround for the Indianapolis Colts, who after playing their first preseason game this past Sunday will now have two days of joint practices with the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

“Oh they’re going to be huge,” said Shane Steichen about the upcoming stretch of practices and games.

Joint practices can actually be viewed as more valuable than the preseason game–at least for the starters.

For one, in the more controlled environment, teams will play their starters who may not see action during the preseason, giving them game-like reps before the regular season.

In this setting, coaches are also more willing to show a little bit more from a schematic standpoint, rather than being so vanilla with their play calls as we see during the preseason games. This, of course, can provide an additional challenge for the players, which is a good thing this time of the year.

As these joint practices unfold, it’ll be vital for these eight Colts players to have standout performances.

Around the NFL in recent years, joint practices have become the norm because of the benefits just described–not to mention it helps break up what can become the monotony of going against your teammates in practice every day.

Colts’ head coach Shane Steichen and Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon know each other well from their time as coordinators with the Philadelphia Eagles.

After the two joint practices on Wednesday and Thursday, the Colts will host Arizona at Lucas Oil Stadium for their second preseason game on Saturday at 7:00 PM ET.