Joint practices have become all the rage across the NFL in recent years, with teams opting to ramp up training camp competition against one another in a controlled practice environment instead of on the preseason game field. While these team–versus–team practices sessions aren’t necessarily a new phenomenon, the frequency with which they’re scheduled has steadily increased since the league went from 16 regular-season games to 17 in 2021, which reduced the preseason slate from four games to three, and in turn gave clubs less on-field time to prepare for the regular season.
Unlike preseason games—which feature game clocks, referees and carte blanche to do just about anything within the rules of football, including hitting the quarterback—joint practices are managed by the coaches of both teams. This allows them to control the tempo of the session, the drills that they run and the matchups they’d like to see against their opponent—simulating game-like scenarios while limiting injuries in the process.
