ORCHARD PARK — Twenty-five years ago, the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns did something unusual. Players now might consider it unfathomable.
They scrimmaged.
Not a joint practice or a preseason game. An old-fashioned scrimmage. Empire Sports Network broadcast it on Aug. 4, 2001, from Edinboro University.
By then scrimmages were becoming outdated, but there was a time when NFL training camps really mattered. Before 1978, teams played six games and the starters played — a lot. That was when training camps were necessary because football was not a full-time job for most players and they needed to get in shape.
Now everyone is looking for an avenue to shorten the preseason even more. In 2021, the NFL cut the fourth preseason game to add a 17th regular-season game.There’s also persistent talk of taking another for an 18th game.
All the while, there are gripes about the preseason. Starters are playing less often and it questions the importance of games. Joint practices are becoming more common as 28 teams have one scheduled this year, up from 15 a decade ago.
The Bills are competing in a joint practice for the third consecutive year, this time with the Browns on Thursday in Berea, Ohio, two days before the teams play a preseason game. Many are wondering now whether joint practices will usurp preseason games in the future.
“We both talked about that if we see out of our ones, our group, our older players what we want to see on Thursday, they would not play in the game,” Browns coach Todd Monken said. “… The plan is that we’ll play our ones a significant amount against each other on Thursday in a controlled environment. Not that the other guys aren’t going to get reps, but in a controlled environment and see where we’re at.”
The main reason joint practices are never likely to entirely replace preseason games is money and it’s always going to be money. Owners might be willing to chop a preseason game for an 18th regular-season game because there’s more money, but they aren’t going to part with the $2.5-$4 million in revenue they make on a preseason game.
If owners wanted, they could certainly make money on joint practices. But that would mean having a crowd and probably a television deal. And that would diminish the value for many coaches.
Coaches frequently talk about having vanilla gameplans and minimal opponent scouting for preseason games. An offense isn’t going to open its playbook and a defense isn’t going to reveal exotic blitzes and personnel packages on a game that doesn’t count towards the standings.
Millions of people and all 32 teams have access to preseason game tapes. The only teams who can access a joint practice tape are the teams involved. Unless they meet in the playoffs, the Bills and Browns are going to play this season, so both teams are more likely to expand the playbook in a joint practice.
“Coaching is a pretty tight-knit community,” Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said. “A lot of guys know people, so there’s certain things that even with it being a practice setting, you might not put on tape. But at the same time, you will do a little bit more in that setting than you would in the preseason when you know all 32 teams’ eyes are on it.”
Coaches still find value in preseason games because it’s a way to evaluate the roster. There’s no tackling nor quarterback contact in joint practices, which can blur the evaluation a bit, but joint practices are still largely beneficial to the starters.
Teams don’t want quarterbacks to get hit outside of a game nor do they want starters tackling or getting tackled. Joint practices allow teams to measure themselves against an opponent and do so in a controlled environment.
“If coaches weren’t afraid of getting their guys hurt, there’s no way they would say a joint practice is like a game,” Monken said. “… There’s so much value in (preseason games) and then you have to weigh the injury factor. … No one’s going to say a controlled environment is better than a game. But if you’re going to say it’s ones on ones, it’s pretty damn close.”
Players have shown they care about joint practices because competitiveness spills out even though it’s still a practice. The Cowboys and Saints had a joint practice Tuesday that resulted in a handful of brawls.
“The competitive juices just get going a little bit more in a training camp practice,” Leonhard said. “Guys can get away with a little bit more (expletive)-talking and stuff like that. So it’s always fun just to see how guys accept that challenge and go out there and compete.”