The Arizona Cardinals will begin their regular season on Sunday in New Orleans and have decided to adjust their travel schedule for this game. Despite a two-hour time difference, the team plans to depart for Louisiana on Saturday morning rather than Friday.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon explained the decision, noting that it represents a shift from previous seasons when the Cardinals would typically leave a day earlier for games with similar time differences. “We tweaked it a little bit,” Gannon said. “Talked to the experts. It is a little bit of a change of how we have handled that.”
This year’s schedule has only one game with a three-hour time difference, which will be in Indianapolis during Week 6. Other road games, including one in Tampa, involve at most a two-hour difference from Arizona.
Gannon acknowledged that while this is his strongest roster since taking over as head coach, the team’s record on the road stands at 4-13 over his first two seasons. The new approach aims to improve those results. “We talked to our guys (last week) about the advantages of how we’re doing it and the disadvantages, and how to negate the disadvantages,” Gannon said. “I feel good where we are at.”
