What Mike LaFleur Told Cardinals Ahead of Hall of Fame Game

The Arizona Cardinals are about to play their first game under their new coach. Here's what they said.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur walks the sidelines during training camp at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Aug. 3, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

GLENDALE — The Arizona Cardinals are about to take the field for the first time under Mike LaFleur's guidance.

The primetime lights of Canton, OH will play host to the Cardinals and Carolina Panthers this Thursday at 5:00 PM AZ time on NBC as the NFL's Hall of Fame Game begins preseason action.

Most fans will be seated at home watching the Cardinals. LaFleur will be on the sidelines watching months of preparation, planning and practice unfold in front of his eyes.

It's preseason, which means the wins and losses don't count. Thursday's matchup won't be viewed as LaFleur's debut or first official game in the record books.

Yet it's the first opportunity for Arizona's first-year head coach to see what his team's got against live competition.

Ahead of the bright lights of Thursday Night Football, LaFleur's message to the team will be short and to the point:

"Handle today, and then we'll talk tomorrow."

That's very much the approach LaFleur has continually preached at the podium. Consistently the Cardinals coach has been asked about various things ahead of the future, and each message has been met with some variation of simply focusing on the day at hand.

"Tomorrow we get to pull the training wheels off," LaFleur added.

"There's no coaches behind them. There's no coaches prepping them, except for obviously when they come to the sideline, we'll coach them up. It'll be cool to see just a lot of these guys' demeanors, if you will, when it's real, when the bullets are live. Just because it's preseason and the win/loss doesn't count, it doesn't mean that this isn't real football. Guys are fighting their butts off to make teams, to put good product out there, to put good tape out there, and compete."

The Cardinals' participation in the Hall of Fame Game sees an additional preseason matchup added to their schedule, as Arizona will play four exhibition games before their Week 1 regular season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers.

"Just continue improvement, continue moving the needle up," LaFleur said when asked what he wants to see out of the Cardinals on Thursday.

"Like we keep talking about, we don't need to peak tomorrow. We just need to continuing to improve tomorrow. What's going to be different is because it's live, naturally, the competition level is going to go up."