EAGLES, RAVENS ALREADY RIDING WAVE OF FUTURE WITH JOINT PRACTICES
Joint practices could gain more popularity, especially if preseason gets reduced
PHILADELPHIA — A new collective bargaining agreement that could be in place before the expiration of the current one at the end of the 2020 season could lead the NFL to cut its typical preseason in half — from four games to two — as early as next season.
If and when that happens, Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson believes there is a mechanism that will help all coaches adjust to that change: joint practices.
Pederson’s involvement with this has been every other year. The Eagles did nothing in 2016, hosted the Miami Dolphins in 2017, did nothing again last year and hosted the Baltimore Ravens for two practices ahead of Thursday night’s preseason game this year.
But based on his most recent statements, Pederson not only will be expected to continue with joint practices every summer that he is a head coach but perhaps expand to having sessions with more than just one other team because it’s the next-best thing to real football.
The projected loss of preseason games may be a boon for fans. But because of the recent trend of NFL teams’ steadily reducing (or in some cases eliminating entirely) live, tackling-to-the ground sessions during training camp, the games had actually come to take on more value for coaches because they offer the best, most complete way to evaluate players.
“You can’t fake football,” Giants coach and former Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said this week.
Call joint practices in which teams hit
just a little harder and play with more of an edge — which clearly was evident Monday and Tuesday at the NovaCare Complex — an acceptable compromise.
“I think that’s the trend,” Pederson said. “I think that’s where we’re going. I think that’s the way the league is heading. I like it. I think the players like it.
“It does break up hitting … your teammates for so long. But the thing … about practice, and really a joint practice, as coaches we get to set the situations. We get to control the environment, and sometimes you don’t get those in games. You don’t get that situation in a game, and this way we can control that and work on specific things and get some really good work done with our starters.”
Joint practices also are great for any fans who might be in attendance. For instance, all of the first day and most of the second during the Eagles-Ravens sessions featured two scrimmages being conducted simultaneously. It was Eagles offense versus Ravens defense on one field and Ravens offense versus Eagles defense on another. That continued even when they broke for special-teams work.
All of this could be especially beneficial for the Eagles this year, given Pederson’s decision not to play any of his top players in the first two preseason games.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked if joint practices could be an acceptable alternative to what’s in place now. He feels the same way as Pederson does about the benefits of working together.
“I think the joint practices are really good,” Harbaugh said. “We had two great days, two teams
that are very like-minded in what we wanted to get out of it.
“I just felt like we got a lot of work done. I wouldn’t be opposed to that at all. I’m on record — I don’t know how many of these preseason games we really need to play, but I also understand there’s a lot … to the bargaining process. So we’ll see what happens.”
Regardless of what happens to the league’s preseason schedule, look for the Eagles to expand their joint-practice schedule from this point. The days of them practicing just by themselves in the preseason are over.