Cardinals to devote practice time to three possible postseason foes

The Arizona Cardinals will not know their first playoff opponent until Sunday night and this week's practice schedule reflects that uncertainty.

“Wednesday will be Green Bay, Thursday is Minnesota and Friday will now be Washington,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians told reporters Monday in outlining his schedule. “We’ll spend a lot of time on Washington, because there’s no chance of playing Seattle until the end. So, we’ll focus on those three teams.”

Arizona will host the highest-seeded team remaining from the first weekend of the postseason on Jan. 16, leaving potential matchups against third-seeded Minnesota, No. 4 Washington and fifth-seeded Green Bay.

The Cardinals do have the advantage of familiarity with two of their possible opponents. They outlasted the Vikings 23-20 on Dec. 10 and stomped the Packers 38-8 in Week 16 - with both victories coming at home.

“We’ll do a complete open field, red zone, third down and specialty practice on each team,” Arians said. “We’ve got so much left over from both those two game plans that we have more than enough to practice with.”

Arizona split a pair of meetings with Seattle, but the earliest it could face the sixth-seeded Seahawks would be in the conference title game. The Cardinals played the Redskins and quarterback Kirk Cousins in Week 5 in 2014, posting a 30-20 home victory.

“From what I’ve seen, Kirk is playing really, really well, especially at home,” Arians said. “Now, they went to Chicago and he played extremely well there also, and Dallas. They’ve got weapons. He’s playing at a very high level."