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The New Game Plan: How Joint Practices Are Revolutionizing NFL Preseason Preparation

The New Game Plan: How Joint Practices Are Revolutionizing NFL Preseason Preparation

The landscape of NFL preseason preparation is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Across the league, starting players are increasingly absent from exhibition games, their meaningful work now taking place in the controlled environment of joint practices with opposing teams. This shift represents more than just a scheduling change—it’s a fundamental reimagining of how teams prepare their core players for the rigors of the regular season.

The Numbers Tell the Story

This year alone, 29 NFL teams are participating in joint practices during the 2025 preseason, a testament to the format’s growing popularity. Teams are permitted to conduct up to four joint practice sessions during the preseason, and coaches are increasingly maximizing these opportunities while minimizing their starters’ exposure in actual preseason games.

The trend has been building for years, but recent seasons have seen an acceleration. Starters who once used preseason games to shake off rust and build chemistry are now getting that work done in practices that offer intensity without the unpredictable variables of live games.

Why Coaches Are Making the Switch

The appeal of joint practices over preseason games for starters comes down to three key factors: control, safety, and evaluation quality.

Enhanced Control and Customization Unlike preseason games with game clocks and referees, joint practices are entirely managed by coaches. This allows teams to control the tempo, select specific drills, and engineer particular matchups they want to evaluate. Coaches can script scenarios, repeat situations, and focus on areas where their team needs work—luxuries not available during the rigid structure of game action.

Reduced Injury Risk Player safety remains paramount, and joint practices offer a way to provide competitive work while maintaining better control over contact levels and injury exposure. Teams don’t want their franchise players hurt in meaningless exhibitions, and joint practices allow for competitive intensity while coaches retain the ability to manage physical contact.

Superior Evaluation Environment Perhaps most importantly, joint practices provide what many coaches consider a better evaluation tool than preseason games. Starters face other teams’ first-string units in situations coaches can specifically design to test their players. The competitive environment often generates more intensity than preseason games, complete with the chirping and physicality that comes with facing unfamiliar opponents.

Leading the Charge

Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay has been at the forefront of this movement since joining the team in 2017. His success with joint practices has influenced coaches across the league to reconsider their preseason approach. The philosophy has spread as other successful coaches have seen the benefits of this more controlled preparation method.

The Ripple Effects

This shift has transformed what preseason games represent. Rather than showcasing starters, exhibition games have become evaluation opportunities for players on the roster bubble—those fighting for final spots or trying to make impressions on coaching staffs. Rookies, practice squad candidates, and veterans competing for positions now dominate preseason action.

The change also affects game planning. Teams are less concerned about showing their full playbook in joint practices since they can control what they reveal, whereas preseason games were always about vanilla schemes to avoid giving future opponents insights.

Current Examples in Action

Recent joint practices illustrate the trend perfectly. The Washington Commanders and New England Patriots conducted joint practices before their preseason meeting, with star quarterback Jayden Daniels getting his meaningful work in practice rather than the exhibition game. Similarly, the Dallas Cowboys recently hosted the Los Angeles Rams for joint practices, focusing on specific matchups and situations.

These sessions often generate the kind of competitive intensity that coaches value—complete with scuffles and heated moments that indicate players are treating the work seriously, without the injury risks that come with full-speed game action.

Looking Forward

The evolution toward joint practices represents a maturation in how NFL teams approach player development and evaluation. As coaches become more sophisticated in their understanding of what their players need to succeed, the controlled environment of joint practices offers advantages that traditional preseason games simply cannot match.

For fans and media accustomed to evaluating teams through preseason games, this shift requires an adjustment in expectations. The meaningful preparation work is increasingly happening away from game cameras, in practice facilities where coaches can fine-tune their units without the variables that make preseason games less predictable.

The trend shows no signs of slowing. As more teams experience the benefits of joint practices and see their competitors adopting similar approaches, expect this to become the standard rather than the exception. The preseason game will likely survive, but its role has been fundamentally redefined—shifting from starter preparation to roster evaluation.

The 2011 collective bargaining agreement introduced limitations on offseason and training camp practices, which some coaches believed led to a decrease in conditioning and a subsequent rise in injuries. However, studies show that while conditioning-dependent injuries increased initially, non-conditioning injuries decreased significantly, and overall injury rates returned to pre-CBA levels in subsequent seasons.

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