The Arizona Cardinals will play the Green Bay Packers Friday night at Lambeau Field in the first “LaFleur Bowl.” It could be coined the “Melton Bowl,” as Max Melton is a cornerback for the Cardinals while his brother Bo Melton is a Packers receiver.
Newly minted head coach Mike LaFleur of the Cardinals will face off against his older brother Matt, head coach of the Packers. The two have faced off twice when Mike was the OC of the Los Angeles Rams, but this will mark the first time the siblings have squared off while each was an NFL head coach.
RELATED:CARDINALS ACTIVATE SWEAT
Traditionally, NFL teams do not play any starters in the final preseason game. The coaching staff already knows what they have with their starting players, and the big question marks are involved within the bottom third of the roster.
“The Turk” arrives on Sunday, August 30, as NFL teams must announce their 53-man rosters. Currently, teams can have as many as 90 guys in camp. The difficult aspect for the coaches is to find out which players to retain. No coach wants to cut a guy who becomes a valued member of another franchise at some point. Think Kurt Warner.
With this in mind, how many starters on offense, defense, and special teams will be playing?
The Arizona version of LaFleur answered that question and stated that none of the starters will play. That includes rookie RB Jeremiyah Love, who is still nursing an ankle injury.
As far as the quarterback room, only Gardner Minshew and Kedon Slovis will play. Rookie Carson Beck hasn’t thrown a pass in any recent practice as he is healing from a rib injury he suffered in the Hall of Fame Game and has been sidelined ever since. Because Jacoby Brissett is the starting QB, he will not even suit up.
Mike LaFleur confirmed that most of the starters will not play, but might be a couple exceptions of a player or two starting Sept 13 playing Friday in Green Bay #AZCardinals
— J.P. Shadrick (@jpshadrick) August 26, 2026Although we stated that none of the other starters will play, well, that just might be incorrect. It is possible to see DE Josh Sweat out there for a couple of series. He hasn’t been practicing and has zero snaps in the three other exhibition games. Perhaps the coaching staff will want him to dust off the rust a bit. Then again, they could just sit him and let the Week 1 outing become his dust-off.
LaFleur did touch a bit on Sweat despite him getting in only one workout:
“It was great to have him out there. When you get some of those pieces out there, you can feel it with the other guys, too. They were happy to see him again. He’s according to plan. It’s right on schedule in terms of when he was going to get out there. He’ll be out there again today doing some individual drills, and we’ll just kind of take it one practice at a time.”
This match will be strictly for jobs. The game will feature backup players, rookies, and roster bubble candidates fighting for final spots on both sides of the ball before roster cuts. That includes backup punter Jack Browning, who played for the Orlando Storm of the UFL this past spring.
How to catch the gameWatch@ 7:00 p.m. (Eastern), 4:00 p.m. (Mountain)
Arizona Family / KPHO Ch. 3
ABC/NBC affiliates in the Packers broadcast regions: WKOW
NFL+
Outside the USA: NFL Game Pass
ListenCardinals Radio Network 98.7 FM
Packers Radio Network
SiriusXM NFL Radio
Latino Mix 100.3 FM KQMR
StreamNFL+
Cardinals Mobile App
azcardinals.com “Watch Live”
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