In addition to the Indianapolis Colts hosting a pair of joint practices with the Arizona Cardinals prior to that preseason game, head coach Shane Steichen mentioned after Wednesday’s practice that the Colts will also have one joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Colts will play at Cincinnati in their third and final preseason game on August 22nd. As of now, a date for the joint practice hasn’t been announced.
Around the NFL, joint practices have become much more common in recent years and have proven to be very valuable.
For one, with many key starters not seeing preseason action, the joint practice cultivates a game-like atmosphere in a somewhat controlled environment to get those players some high competitive exposure before the regular season.
In addition to that, joint practices can help break up the monotony of training camp, along with providing the offensive and defensive units different looks, rather than going up against their own team each day.
And with these practices not televised, teams have the opportunity to go a little deeper into the playbook instead of running the very vanilla looks that we see during the preseason.
Last summer, the Colts held joint practices with the Chicago Bears.
