Winners and Losers for Packers at Joint Practice vs. Cardinals

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The final practice of Green Bay Packers training camp ended with a thud.

During a series of 2-minute drills to end the joint practice with the Arizona Cardinals, the No. 1 offense stalled in the red zone, the No. 1 defense was shredded, the No. 2 offense turned it over and the No. 2 defense was shredded, as well.

“Obviously, you’ve got to start somewhere, and I think that we're definitely hitting that on the head throughout the offseason,” receiver Christian Watson said of finishing. “I definitely think that we took a lot of steps in the right direction in that department, but it's got to be something that shows up when it matters.”

None of that is especially relevant, of course. The outcome of Friday night’s preseason rematch won’t matter, either.

Nonetheless, here are the winners and losers from the 16th and final practice of training camp.

Loser: Matt LaFleur

During the final day of minicamp in June and in light of how last season ended, coach Matt LaFleur was asked about his offseason point of emphasis of finishing games.

“I think it’s just constantly being reinforced on a daily basis,” he said. “We watched another tape that we made for them this morning, and just kind of keep hammering home the finish aspect. I think the way you improve on that is you got to be conscious of it.”

The Packers, of course, imploded down the stretch last season. Their 0-5 finish included two games at Chicago in which they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

LaFleur has preached the need to finish. He’s preached finishing.

On Wednesday, they didn’t practice what they’ve been preaching. As they failed on all four 2-minute drills, their frustrations boiled over a few times. Meanwhile, the Cardinals enjoyed rollicking team-wide celebrations as if they’d just beat the Packers at Lambeau in a game that mattered.

“I don’t know if it was the weather, I don't know if it was you know the travel, whatever,” Cardinals receiver Michael Wilson said. “We were just kind of a little bit asleep, which is fine. And then, you know, it's not about how you start; it's how you finish.”

Ultimately, there’s only so much LaFleur can do, of course. They would have beaten the Bears had sure-handed Romeo Doubs not botched an onside kick at Chicago, and the No. 1 offense would have scored the necessary touchdown on Wednesday had sure-handed Matthew Golden not dropped a pass in the back of the end zone.

So, putting LaFleur under the “loser” category isn’t so much a critique of him as it is a critique of the rest of the team not improving in a critical area.

“That’s obviously something we’ve harped on throughout the offseason, throughout training camp,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “So, I think that was the lowest point of the day was just (the) finish.”

Winner: QB Jordan Love

Before practice, a reporter from Chicago asked coach Matt LaFleur about a quarterback – Caleb Williams, in this case – completing 70 percent of his passes in a season.

It’d be easy, really. Just throw a bunch of short passes. Packers quarterback Jordan Love might never complete 70 percent of his passes because he’s so aggressive.

Love came out slinging it against the Cardinals. His first 10 passes would have been completions had a deep ball not gone through Bo Melton’s hands and Chris Brooks not dropped a pass over the middle.

What was impressive is Love continually pushed the ball downfield. He hit Christian Watson for a gain of about 20 at the sideline, connected with Matthew Golden on a touchdown bomb, fired a tight-window laser to Jayden Reed over the middle for another 15.

Including the completions to Watson, Golden and Reed, Love was 5-of-6 during a third-down period. All five completions resulted in first downs.

“It was good work,” Love said. “I think anytime you have a joint practice, it’s always going to be great work. You know, you’re finally seeing a new defense, some new looks. When you get to the preseason games, it’s pretty vanilla in what you’re seeing. So, I think practice teams show a little bit more – a little bit more pressures, things like that. So, it’s definitely more realistic for the regular season.”

Loser: QB Kyle McCord

During his third-down plays, Kyle McCord threw one interception on an underthrown deep pass to Chris Hilton Jr. and then overthrew J. Michael Sturdivant, who was wide open for what should have been a long touchdown.

Winner/Loser: WR Matthew Golden

On the first third-down play, Matthew Golden got behind the Cardinals’ defense and made a terrific catch as he tumbled to the turf for a touchdown of about 45 yards.

“Yeah, it was a really well-designed play that we had dialed up,” Love said. “Budda (Baker) was kind of playing the post and he started pushing to the left and it really opened up the hole for M.G.

“M.G. ran a great route and I just put it out there. I think for him, he did a great job just kind of being able to go down with the ball, secure the catch with two guys closing in on him. It’s one of those bang-bang plays, but it’s really just good execution all around on that one.”

Golden was productive overall but dropped an easy touchdown in a 2-minute drill.

Winner: WR Jayden Reed

On the play after the touchdown to Matthew Golden, Jordan Love rifled one over the middle to Jayden Reed for a big gain. The completion was good; the connection is better.

“J-Reed ran a fantastic route,” Love said. “He’s kind of running that middle route. He gave a little double-up to kind of get the DB on his back hip and just give me a little room where to put the ball. That’s something that we’ve worked so much – and really not even seeing a lot of reps come to life in practice.

“But we’ve talked about it so much when we watch film when we get looks like that they gave us today, of how they run that route. I think for J-Reed, he ran a perfect route right there. That’s something that’s going to be teach tape going forward and I think that makes it easy as a quarterback to know where to put the ball and how to drive it right there. That was perfect.”

Loser: WR Isaiah Neyor

During the backups’ 2-minute drill, Tyrod Taylor faced a third-and-5. His throw over the middle to Isaiah Neyor was behind the big receiver, but not horribly so. It was deflected in the air and intercepted.

Winner: RB Josh Jacobs

The run game has really come to life with the return of premier running back Josh Jaccobs after missing time with a calf injury. He got the ball on three consecutive plays early in practice, including one catch and one cutback run that produced an explosive gain.

Winner: TE Tucker Kraft

With the Cardinals’ defense doing quite a bit of chirping. Tucker Kraft caught a pass inside the 5-yard line and plowed through the secondary for a touchdown.

“I’ve been building to this,” Kraft said. “Really, mentally, I’ve been in it, if that makes sense. But getting out there today and getting more of move the ball, call it, those are my favorite periods because they’re non-scripted plays. You got to be locked in in the huddle. Getting an opportunity to do multiple racks of the move-the-ball periods, those are good.”

Later, on fourth-and-1, Kraft caught a pass at the sideline and was clobbered. The Cardinals’ bench was fired up, even though there was a penalty for unnecessary roughness.

Kraft being Kraft, he wasn’t mad at all.

“That was just competition,” he said. “I’ve done that multiple times in my career now in a practice situation where you kind of make eye contact with someone and you just finish on the sideline. Use and abuse, that’s what we’ll refer to it as. I needed some contact like that to wake up the nervous system and get ready for Week 1.”

Winner/Loser: TE Drake Dabney

Jordan Love went deep up the right sideline. He was pressured and the ball led tight end Drake Dabney too far and was intercepted by Andrew Wingard. The coaches probably will want Dabney to make more of an effort to at least prevent the interception.

Later, Chris Brooks scored on a 5-yard touchdown run. Dabney had a pancake block as Brooks scored with ease. It might have been the best-run running play of the summer.

Loser: LG Aaron Banks

The $77 million left guard was on the ground a couple times as Jordan Love was pressured or sacked. Nothing makes a coach more upset than a lineman winding up on the turf.

Winner: DT Karl Brooks

Karl Brooks had a couple of sacks. After a quiet third season, he seems poised to have a rebound season.

Winner: LB Edgerrin Cooper

As has been the case throughout training camp, Edgerrin Cooper was here, there and everywhere. Following a summer-long trend, he produced sacks and pressures when he attacked the quarterback, he broke up passes when he dropped into coverage, and many of his tackles on running plays have been at or behind the line.

If you were to pick a training camp MVP, Cooper might be the winner.

Winner/Loser: CB Brandon Cisse

Rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse had an excellent day until the 2-minute drill. With Jacoby Brissett the starting quarterback, Cisse had one interception and broke up another.

During 2-minute, Marvin Harrison beat him for a first down on the first play of the drive and scored a touchdown on a jump ball to end the drive.

It will be a learning experience for the team’s best cornerback.

“On a play like that, you got to get your body on guys a little bit more than that,” Cisse said of the touchdown. “Obviously, he’s going to be really good at the top of the route. He’s got a really good frame, so he’s going to work into you, be able to control his body. Honestly, that’s a great ball to put it on that shoulder. But I got to be a little bit tighter and try to play through his hands a little bit better.”

Loser: CB Keisean Nixon

After a couple of productive blitzes, Keisean Nixon was tested in coverage. On a free-play deep pass, Nixon pulled the receiver’s jersey off his pads. The play ended with a wicked collision between Nixon and safety Xavier McKinney.

Maybe – and understandably – that took Nixon off his game.

Regardless, it all went to heck during the 2-minute drill. On fourth-and-2, he gave up a catch to Michael Wilson, which was no big deal considering the circumstances. But Nixon being Nixon, he wouldn’t leave well enough alone so kept Wilson wrapped up longer than necessary and kept talking. A few plays later, the Cardinals got in the last word when Nixon was flagged for pass interference in the end zone.

“Not too fond of him, and I don't think he's too fond of me. So just leave it at that,” Wilson said.

Nixon is in his eighth season. At some point – especially after leading all NFL corners in penalties last season – you’d think he’d find the right balance between competitive and combative.

Loser: P Daniel Whelan

In a series of punts meant to pin the Cardinals inside the 10, Whelan had one downed at the 6 by Kitan Oladapo but the others were the 16, 14, 22 and 13.

Loser: K Trey Smack

The red-hot rookie kicker is trending the wrong way headed into the preseason finale. He made 2-of-5 kicks during a field-goal period. He missed a 33-yard extra point, appeared to mis-hit from 45 and was short and right from 59.

The one big takeaway from Packers-Cardinals joint practice: ⬇️https://t.co/RGJF9B3nc8
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 27, 2026

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