GREEN BAY, Wis. — Hopefully you all have a panic button nearby because the Green Bay Packers lost all four two-minute drills to the Arizona Cardinals to finish Wednesday’s joint practice.

Hopefully, you also sense the sarcasm in that sentence.

The Packers had good and bad moments in their first practice session against another team this summer. None of it should lead to any grand conclusions about what we’re about to see in the 2026 season.

I watched the Packers’ defense against the Cardinals’ offense for most of practice, so let’s dive into what I saw.

1. Nickel Javon Bullard returned to practice after missing more than two weeks with a bone bruise in his foot. Outside corner Benjamin St-Juste also returned after missing one practice with a hamstring injury. Bullard didn’t participate in 11-on-11s.

2. First up at outside corner were Brandon Cisse and Keisean Nixon. They’re probably your starting two for Week 1 in Minnesota. Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks started at defensive tackle (Warren Brinson remains sidelined with a calf injury) and Kamal Hadden started in the slot. Kitan Oladapo also worked with the 1s in the slot, with Bullard still working his way back to full strength.

3. Green Bay’s defense started strong in 11-on-11s. Cisse broke up a pass over the middle for wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper stuffed running back Tyler Allgeier for a loss. The Cardinals struggled to catch the ball early and ran a lot out of 12 and 13 personnel with what seemed like moderate success (it’s always tough to tell how successful running plays are without live tackling). Nixon brought yet another corner pressure to make quarterback Jacoby Brissett get rid of the ball and Cooper made another stop in the flat for little or no gain.

Cardinals backup running back Bam Knight (James Conner wasn’t practicing) had a nice cutback run, but the Packers regained the upper hand in short order when Cisse jumped Brissett’s pass to the left sideline and picked it off while the intended receiver fell.

“Just third down and trying to get to the sticks and obviously I have a lot of God-given ability when we call man coverage to take on that role,” Cisse said. “Just saw the ball come out, happened to get out of my break and just tried to go make an exceptional play. I hold myself to a high standard … those aren’t easy plays to make, but those are plays that I really wanna make a lot of.”

Tight end Trey McBride made the first of several notable catches on Wednesday. Again, a positive Cardinals play was met with another from Green Bay’s defense, as Cooper sacked Brissett (at worst, pressured him into an incompletion) and Oladapo picked off backup quarterback Gardner Minshew not long after when another intended receiver slipped (rookie Carson Beck, who might eventually start this season, wasn’t practicing).

“They didn’t tell ‘em about them seven studs,” Oladapo joked about wide receiver Simi Fehoko slipping on the play.

Cornerback Carrington Valentine’s tackling is still a work in progress because right after Oladapo’s interception, a wide receiver who I wrote in my notebook as No. 83 (there’s no 83 on the Cardinals’ roster, so a rolled-up-jersey fooled me) left Valentine in the dust up the left sideline with a swift reversal of direction after the catch.

Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur, left, greets his older brother, Packers coach Matt LaFleur, after their teams’ joint practice on Wednesday. (Steve Megargee / Associated Press)

4. On the first play of the next 11-on-11 period, a move-the-ball session that wasn’t as scripted as the first segment of practice, Brooks sacked Brissett on first-and-10. On the next play, Nixon came off the edge again for a tackle for loss against the run. The Packers then jumped offsides four times in the remainder of the period. Edge Lukas Van Ness, a repeat offender this camp, was first on third-and-10. He was then removed from the field. Someone on the interior that I didn’t catch was next on third-and-5. Undrafted rookie edge Nyjalik Kelly was next and finally came rookie third-round defensive tackle Chris McClellan.

Nixon and safety Xavier McKinney had a nasty collision on a free-play ball on the aforementioned third-and-5 that Brissett launched to receiver Michael Wilson down the right sideline, but both Packers defensive backs stayed in after being slow to get up. Van Ness atoned for his offsides by badly beating right tackle Elijah Wilkinson for at least a pressure a couple of plays later, and Brissett’s rushed pass was batted down by Oladapo on third down.

The Cardinals didn’t try many explosive passing plays, but they completed a couple of passes underneath before wide receiver Jalen Brooks hauled in a perfect ball from Minshew down the left sideline for about 30 yards on cornerback MJ Devonshire. Devonshire also had a run stuff, but the Cardinals responded with another nice run from Knight up the right side.

5. Van Ness stuffed a run to start a red-zone period, but the Cardinals reeled off three consecutive successful plays with an out to McBride that safety Evan Williams jumped but missed as McBride continued up the sideline, another McBride catch for a touchdown and a fade to Harrison for a wide-open touchdown thanks to a coverage breakdown by some combination of Nixon and cornerback Kamal Hadden. Keep in mind we are standing behind the entire Cardinals’ sideline and fenced in far from the play during this period, so please excuse a lack of details since I am only 6-foot-1.

I did, however, see defensive tackle Javon Hargrave sack Brissett and celebrate with a karate kick; Cooper deflected a pass that fell incomplete, defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse pressured Minshew into a short completion, rookie sixth-round corner Domani Jackson maintained solid coverage on Brooks to help force an end-zone incompletion and safety Trey Dean III deflected a pass that linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper intercepted.

6. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Cooper registered another sack to start the next team period, but whoever was in charge of practice allowed the play to continue and granted the Cardinals 9 yards on a completion. Arizona rattled off three first downs in a row afterward before Williams’ late hands on a ball Wilson appeared to catch forced an incompletion over the middle. Wilson then found a soft spot in between Nixon and Williams in zone coverage for a nice gain up the right side. The Packers finished the period on top after cornerback Jaylin Simpson broke up a slant for Brooks and safety Murvin Kenion III made a diving interception after two short Cardinals completions.

7. The first of four two-minute drills pitted the Packers’ starting offense against the Cardinals’ starting defense. The scripted scenario was Arizona leading 28-21 with 1:45 left and the Packers holding one timeout on their own 30-yard line. Cornerback Denzel Burke committed defensive pass interference on third down on the third play of the drive against wide receiver Matthew Golden and the Packers moved down the field during a sloppy period for both units, with penalties on each. Quarterback Jordan Love hit wide receiver Jayden Reed for 15 yards and a first down to the 12-yard line, but the Packers couldn’t find the end zone after the often-sure-handed Golden dropped a touchdown on third down from the 5-yard line and edge Zaven Collins sacked Love on fourth.

The Cardinals’ starting offense began with a completion to Harrison through Cisse’s tight coverage. Two incompletions and a short pass to Wilson followed, but Wilson caught a fourth-down pass in front of Nixon for a first. Nixon stuck his hand on the ball to stall as the clock ran and Wilson took exception. That wasn’t their first run-in during the period. After benches partially emptied for a short scuffle thanks to Nixon’s strategic extra-curriculars, Brissett hit McBride for a big gain over the middle. What happened next should be a shock to nobody who’s followed Packers camp — defensive tackle Anthony Campbell batted down a pass. What happened next also shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nixon started jawing with Arizona’s sideline, telling multiple players he didn’t know who they were. On the very next play, Wilson drew a defensive pass interference flag against Nixon in the end zone and boy, did the Cardinals’ sideline let Nixon hear it.

“Me and him got a little bit of beef going back to my second year in the league,” Wilson said of Nixon. “So every time I see him … I’m not gonna say it’s smoke, but not too fond of him and I don’t think he’s too fond of me.”

Brissett then put a perfect fade on Harrison, who hauled in the touchdown over Cisse. The Cardinals stormed the field, though they still trailed 28-27, but McBride then caught the two-point conversion on Oladapo and punted the ball toward the middle of the field to celebrate the win.

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

Green Bay’s No. 2 offense lost its two-minute drill when Tyrod Taylor’s pass for wideout Isaiah Neyor flew behind him, hit both of his hands and fell to cornerback Elijah Jones. The entire Cardinals defense ran to the end zone to celebrate in front of a photographer snapping pictures, but that photographer works for the Packers and refused to take their picture. One Cardinals player reached for the camera himself, but the photographer pulled away.

Arizona’s backup offense beat Green Bay’s backup defense, too, when Fehoko beat Oladapo over the middle for a touchdown. One Cardinals player compared their two-minute drill success to a Wendy’s 4 for $4 meal since they went 4-for-4, too.

“We do need to finish,” Oladapo said. “We need to execute, but at the end of the day, it’s practice. You’re gonna f–k up, hopefully f–k up in practice, learn from it and we’re gonna correct it for Friday.”