The Minnesota Vikings will host the Tennessee Titans for two joint practices ahead of their preseason home opener on Aug. 19.
On Tuesday, the Vikings announced that the two joint practices will take place on Aug. 16 and Aug. 17 and will begin at noon. According to the team’s website, the practices will last until 2:30 p.m.
While joint practices aren’t very different from normal training camp sessions, it does offer a nice change of pace from the mundane parts of training camp.
Instead of going up against teammates for all of camp, joint practices allow players to match up against a different color uniform.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell has also mentioned that these sessions feature intense competition in a protected environment, which can help prevent injuries but give players some additional work.
Last season, the Vikings held joint practices with the San Francisco 49ers, and the success of last year’s practice prompted O’Connell to set up two more this season with the Titans and the Arizona Cardinals, the team’s third preseason opponent.
“It should push that line sometimes, but if guys are truly preparing for Week 1 of the regular season, they know how important that work is,” O’Connell said about joint practices. “We were able to get two great days of work that really helped our team, so with the spirit of knowing what our football team got out of that, I was really excited to get to line up two organizations with two great coaches that really have that kind of alignment of, hopefully, what we’re trying to get done day in and day out while we’re here to maximize it for both teams.”
The Vikings have not yet announced dates for the joint session with the Cardinals, but it will likely take place a few days before the game, which is scheduled for Aug. 26.
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