As some coaches re-think the wisdom of joint practices, Rams coach Sean McVay isn’t giving it a second thought.
McVay told reporters on Sunday that he gets more out of joint practices than preseason games.
“What I think the best part about the joint practices is you get an opportunity to go against a different team, different schemes, different nuances relative to scheme, personnel, techniques and fundamentals at the line of scrimmage, coverage contours, concepts, all those types of things, and you get it in more controlled settings,” McVay said. “That doesn’t mean that injuries can’t occur, but that’s to me been the benefit and that’s always been something that we’ve valued extremely since 2017. We’ve become an outfit that because of those things, we felt like we’ve gotten a lot of good work.
“That does not mean that there’s not important parts of when you get tackled and things like that, but it’s always weighing the risk-reward of the 10 snaps you would get for the starters, or let’s just say you approached each of the three preseason games where they’re getting 10 to 15 snaps, do those 30 to 45 snaps that they would accrue and accumulate, does that equal what you think is best to go into week one healthy and ready to go and being at your optimum ability? If you told me that, ‘Yes, we’re going to be able to play guys, but you’re leaving yourself a little bit more immune to some of the risks in terms of the injuries and stuff,’ and then it’s a no-brainer, but those are the things that we’re always weighing. But I think long story short, I’ve always felt like the practices are more valuable than the games, yes.”
So will there be more joint practices than preseason games in the future?
“I think there’s a lot of layers to that relative to some of the people at the league office and different things where these preseason games are valuable to be able to evaluate guys or get other opportunities, but if you’re asking me personally, I’ve always leaned towards trying to get that work where you can maximize four opportunities versus somebody else,” McVay said. “You can get an opportunity to run things that maybe you wouldn’t do otherwise, get looks at different things that other teams are less inclined to activate than what they typically put out there in preseason games, and that’s just our approach. That’s not for everybody, and I think you’ve seen there’s a handful of teams that are leaning more towards they are playing guys a little bit more and those are things that we’re still debating on as it relates to how we want to approach Denver based on how the game unfolds, or based on really how that week of preparation and those practices unfold.”
The broader question is whether it makes sense to have two joint practices and then a preseason game between the same teams. For some coaches, one is enough. Recently, some coaches have decided to go with none, cancelling prior plans for joint sessions.
That said, preseason games aren’t going anywhere — unless and until they can be replaced by more regular-season games. The NFL has staged 20 total games per team for decades. Prior to 1978, it was 14 and six. Then, it went to 16 and four. For now, it’s 17 and three. It feels inevitable that 18 and two will be next. Possibly followed by 19 and one, and then 20 and zero.
Until the preseason shrinks to fewer games, coaches have to decide how to structure the rest of the preseason practice time. And it’s good that coaches are willing to reconsider prior plans on the fly, in lieu of just getting through 2023 and worrying about 2024 next year.
