The Washington Commanders and Baltimore Ravens are scheduled for a pair of joint practices this week at the Ravens’ complex in Owings Mills, Md.
It will be a good test for the Commanders, who are coming off a preseason-opening win over the Browns on Friday. Not only do players have a chance to compete against another team, but it’s also a chance to face one of the NFL’s best organizations. The Ravens are one of the NFL’s best teams annually and should give offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy an excellent chance to evaluate his side of the ball further.
In his Sunday press conference, Washington head coach Ron Rivera spoke on the importance of these joint practices.
“One of the things that the league has shared with us has been the analytics that they’ve gotten on the joint practices,” Rivera said. “They’ve found that teams that in the last few years have had joint practices, the injury rate weeks one through five in the regular season go down. They’ve had a lot fewer. That’s one of the things that stood out when we talked about it.”
That’s certainly an interesting perspective. Rivera further elaborated on his past with joint practices.
“I did do it in the past and did feel that coming out of the gate, we had a lot more intensity in terms of the way we approach things,” he said. “I just wanted to keep it that way. Knowing that, especially with the injury rate thing, I thought that’s real important.”
The injury rates provided by NFL research is excellent information. The true value of joint practices is it allows each side of the ball to test itself against another team in a structured manner. The coaching staff of each team works together to determine what each side wants from the practice sessions.
Rivera noted he spoke to Ravens coach John Harbaugh recently in anticipation of this week’s practices.
“You know, myself and Coach Harbaugh had a conversation about mapping out how practice should look, the different periods that we would have,” Rivera said. “Then, we had the coordinators reach out and go through those and discuss what they wanted to see in each one of those periods that we’ve mapped out for the offense and defenses and special teams for that matter as well.”
All eyes will be on Washington quarterback Sam Howell. Howell had an impressive preseason debut on Friday and gets a stiff test against the Ravens over two days of practice this week.
After two days of practice, the two teams will prepare to face one another in the second preseason game next Monday night at FedEx Field.