Joint practices represent an excellent opportunity for opposing teams to test their strengths, uncover weaknesses and offer insight into what needs to be addressed prior to the start of the regular season.
They also sometimes include another, less savory element of preseason practice: fights.
Count Eagles running back Saquon Barkley among those who aren't fans of the fracases.
"I'm the wrong guy to ask because I hate joint practices, to be honest. I think one day is good," Barkley said Thursday following Philadelphia's joint sessions with the New England Patriots, via ESPN. "More times than not nothing good comes out of it. When you have the work it's good, but then you get the pushing, the shoving and someone says this about you and it's 'I don't know about that but you're this.'
"It's immature when you get to that level. I have to do a better job, too, because I'm a little troublemaker sometimes, but I was good this week."
The NFL sent a memo to teams in July stating that "coaches and players are held to the highest standards of professionalism and sportsmanship" during joint practices, ESPN reported.
A Tuesday joint practice session between the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys in Oxnard, California, was marred by multiple fights, and the NFL on Thursday fined each team $500,000 for "the actions that took place."
"The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship -- including at joint practices -- a point of emphasis over the past several years," the league said in a statement. "All clubs were reminded by memo prior to training camp of their responsibility in preventing unsportsmanlike behavior at joint practices that has the potential to result in injury."
ESPN reported there were multiple skirmishes during Thursday's Eagles-Patriots joint practice, the second session of the week ahead of Saturday's preseason game.
"Obviously football is a physical game within itself and it's just a little extra pushing and shoving," Barkley said. "We've also got to do a better job of not allowing that to have a factor in our practice."
As years pass and new generations of participants flood rosters at every level, coaches often deliver the same message to their players: Let the pads do the talking. But it's understandable that star players such as Barkley have grown tired of the spats, which can be detrimental to each team's goals of completing valuable on-field work.
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, a 40-year NFL coaching veteran who has largely seen it all, still sees plenty of value in joint practices.
"I love doing these things. I think these things are great," Fangio said. "I wish we would do another one. It's great to go against a new team, new schemes, new players. You learn things. You're going to get unscouted looks and plays and see how people react. These things are tremendous and can't get enough of it."
Fangio is right, of course. In a preseason month in which most coaches keep game plans vanilla in order to avoid showing their hand prior to the start of the regular season, the best and most informative competition occurs in these joint practices.
Barkley would just like it if they came with a little less pushing and shoving.
