Joint practices have become more and more popular among NFL teams. Aside from the competition, they offer coaches more control through situational drills, and with starters playing only a limited numbers of snaps in preseason games, it gives them a chance to get quality reps in a situation where injury is more avoidable.
The Redskins hosted the Patriots for joint practices in 2014, and Bill Belichick seemed quite happy with the arrangement.
“As a head coach of an NFL team, you don’t really get many opportunities to see what other people are doing,” Belichick said. “So in the NFL, this is like one of the few opportunities that we have to work with another staff, another team.