The question I often get asked is, “How much are the starters going to play in preseason?” Or, ” Should the starters even play?” These are valid concerns on both sides. As Washington prepares to host the Miami Dolphins tomorrow, I am answering the question of why these joint practices have surpassed preseason games for importance.
Coaches Philosophy
Head Coach Dan Quinn was asked about joint practices today. “Yeah, it’s an advantage to have it, for sure. It allows you to maybe do some things that you may not wanna show into the ball games to go.” Practices are controlled environments where coaches can create certain scenarios where they can better simulate games. Do you want to see where the new offense in the Redzone, set it up. Do you want your defense to work on facing a two minute drill, create it. In this arena coaches can see exactly what they want to see, and then can effectively evaluate the roster. Quinn continued, ” So just in terms of training your skills alone, there’s an advantage. So, I like it. And I think, the two [practices] for us seems the appropriate amount.”
Players Mentality
After about a week of hitting the same players over and over, the effectiveness of practices decreases. The players learn each others tendencies and can understand each others schemes. Another jersey and different players and scheme naturally create a new competitive environment. Coach Quinn mentioned the one on one’s he was excited to see from the players tomorrow. What better way to evaluate players under pressure that these one on one battles. Players naturally want to compete and this environment is where you will get this the best, not in preseason games.
Everything is a Secret
Preseason football is usually the vanilla schemes from teams. Even when “starters” play, the playbook is barely opened and you do not scheme against the opponent. With some players trying to stay healthy mixed in with players fighting for roster, injuries are always a concern. In the joint practices quarterbacks are protected, in preseason games they are not. Another reason that people don’t think about, eyes and film are everywhere. In joint practices the film is not public (not fan videos withstanding) so teams practice their main concepts while in preseason that film is recorded for everyone to see. For that reason alone teams “vanilla” their schemes are playbooks. Secret is better and coaches will always lean that way. If practices could be closed they would definitely lean that way.
Joint Practices are the the new fad in the league and when the NFL adds an 18th game, (we all know it is coming), there will be more joint practices to prepare teams for regular seasons. That’s why tomorrow and the joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens matters the most.
