It’s joint practice fighting season, with Tuesday’s all-out brawl between the Saints and Cowboys making its way to NBC Nightly News.
There’s a simple fix.
The NFL should exercise jurisdiction over joint practices, issuing fines (and other discipline, when necessary) for any fights that occur.
That would end it. At a minimum, it would give cooler heads a very good reason to prevail, if/when things heat up.
It’s one thing for the league to not issue discipline for fights occurring at individual team practices. When two teams get together, the NFL should be willing to ensure that the hitting doesn’t continue after the whistle blows.
Although the sport is premised on violence, any punches, kicks, helmet swings, etc. that happen after a play has ended are basically workplace violence. If the teams aren’t going to do anything about it, the league absolutely should intervene.
Especially since, the moment a player is seriously injured during one of these preventable brouhahas, the victim’s lawyer will claim that the NFL failed to remove a clear — and preventable — occupational hazard.
Saints Clips
There is now more information on Saints running back Alvin Kamara, who was injured during Tuesday’s joint practice with the Cowboys.
Kamara will be out for at least a month with a sprained MCL, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
While that’s not a worst-case scenario, it still means Kamara will likely be out to start the regular season.
Kamara, 31, reached an agreement on a renegotiated deal with New Orleans last month for the 2026 season.
The veteran running back has spent his entire career with the Saints, who selected him in the third round of the 2017 draft. He started 11 games in 2025, registering 471 rushing yards with one touchdown and 33 catches for 186 yards.
The Saints added Travis Etienne in free agency, and he figures to be the team’s lead back in 2026.
The Saints and Cowboys had a fight-filled joint practice on Tuesday, but afterward Saints head coach Kellen Moore wasn’t too concerned.
“All the chippiness of it, not the ideal flow of a joint practice, but we got the work we need,” Moore said.
Moore said he and Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer discussed all the fights during practice and decided to keep going.
“Schotty and I communicated, we know each other from working in the past, so we communicated,” Moore said.
Moore wants his players to get accustomed to putting aside their emotion and focusing on the play on the field.
“There’s a lot of rah-rah and emotion to football, and that’s part of it. At the end of the day it’s about executing and running football plays. There’s a lot of loud people on a football field but at the end of the day it’s about executing football plays,” Moore said. “Take all the emotion out of it, watch it without all the rah-rah to it and we’ll get some good lessons.”
Ultimately, Moore thought the practice was a learning opportunity.
“There’s some edginess to football,” Moore said. “We get to learn from how this one navigated and we got some good stuff out of this.”
Tuesday’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em joint practice between the Cowboys and Saints included veteran running back Alvin Kamara leaving with an injury.
Via Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football, Kamara injured his knee. Per the report, he avoided a major injury, with no torn ligaments.
Still, Kamara is expected to be out for a few weeks.
Kamara, a third-round pick in 2017, reworked his deal with the Saints to remain on the team, as the backup to Travis Etienne, who arrived via free agency from the Jaguars.
A five-time Pro Bowler, Kamara had generated 12,198 yards from scrimmage in nine seasons, with 86 total touchdowns.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer was upset with his team after double-digit fights broke out during a joint practice with the Saints.
“Right now, I’m in charge of fight club,” Schottenheimer said afterward, via Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News.
Officials tossed Cowboys outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku after he threw a punch, marking the second time that’s happened during training camp. Cowboys cornerback Caelen Carson also threw a punch but officials apparently didn’t see him do it.
Saints center Erik McCoy threw a Cowboys’ helmet in the air, and Saints tight end Moliki Matavao wrestled Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson to the ground.
Schottenheimer and Saints head coach Kellen Moore, who played for and coached for the Cowboys, discussed ending the practice early after failing to get things under control. Ultimately, the scrimmage went to the end.
“Nobody wants this,” Schottenheimer said. “We want to get the work in. I thought it settled down and it was very chippy early on, but it was unfortunate.
“Our football team needs this work, and overall, I was disappointed in the work today because I didn’t think we got enough good work.”
Schottenheimer said he won’t tolerate fighting, but at the same time, he likes the fight in his team.
“We’re going to play on the edge and we’re not going to take . . . shit from anybody,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the same time, I don’t think [the Saints] were the only ones stirring up the shit. I think we might’ve been stirring it up as well. It was a sloppy practice all in all, and it’s got to be better.”
Saints fans can breathe a sigh of relief: Chris Olave is just fine.
The Saints wide receiver left the joint practice with the Cowboys before it was finished. He went into the medical tent and then left with athletic trainers.
Olave, though, later returned to team drills.
First-round wideout Jordyn Tyson will miss around two months after injuring his hamstring during a joint practice with the Jaguars last Thursday.
The Saints worked out veteran wide receivers Chase Claypool and Josh Reynolds on Tuesday.
Olave has missed 13 games with injuries in his four seasons. He played 16 games last season and had a career year with 100 catches for 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns.
Saints wide receiver Chris Olave left Tuesday’s joint practice with the Cowboys early.
Olave had a good day before walking to the medical tent and then leaving the field, per video from Clarence Hill of All City DLLS.
First-round wideout Jordyn Tyson will miss around two months after injuring his hamstring during a joint practice with the Jaguars last Thursday.
The Saints worked out veteran wide receivers Chase Claypool and Josh Reynolds on Tuesday.
Olave has missed 13 games with injuries in his four seasons. He played 16 games last season and had a career year with 100 catches for 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns.
UPDATE 8:30 P.M. ET: Olave returned to the joint practice.
Six years ago, it appeared that the Steelers had found a keeper in second-round receiver Chase Claypool.
Now, Claypool continues to look for a path back to an NFL roster.
Claypool, who hasn’t played in an NFL game since 2023, had a tryout on Tuesday with the Saints, per multiple reports. Veteran receiver Josh Reynolds, a nine-year veteran who played for the Jets in 2025, also tried out for New Orleans.
The Saints recently lost first-round rookie Jordyn Tyson to a hamstring injury. He’s expected to miss two months.
Claypool scored 11 touchdowns as a rookie in Pittsburgh. By 2022, the Steelers had decided to move on, recouping their second-round pick (which ended up being the first pick in round two) from the Bears. During the 2023 season, the Bears traded Claypool to the Dolphins for a swap of sixth- and seventh-round picks.
An injury in 2024 derailed an opportunity with the Bills before the season started. He has not been on a roster since then.
Reynolds, a fourth-round pick of the Rams in 2017, has also played for the Titans, Lions, Broncos, and Jaguars.
Saints first-round pick Jordyn Tyson’s NFL debut reportedly won’t be coming in the early part of the 2026 season.
NFL Media reports that Tyson is set to miss around two months as a result of a hamstring injury. The wideout was injured during a joint practice with the Jaguars last Thursday.
That timeline would carry into October and makes Tyson a prime candidate to open the season on injured reserve. The Saints will be able to designate him as eligible to return if they wait to put him on the list until the cut to 53 players later this month. If he does go on injured reserve, he will have to miss at least four games before returning to action.
It’s a big blow to a Saints offense that was hoping to pair Tyson with Chris Olave to give quarterback Tyler Shough a pair of dangerous receiving threats in his first full season as a starter. The answer to how big a blow won’t be known until we see when the Saints are able to ramp Tyson back up into a contributor this fall.
Tyler Shough did not play any quarterback for the Saints on Saturday, but the two players in contention to be his backup both saw action against the Jaguars.
Spencer Rattler started the game and went 8-of-11 for 42 yards while losing a fumble on one of the two sacks he took. The team’s opening drive ended with a touchdown, but it started on the Jacksonville 9-yard-line and ended after one Audric Estime run. The Saints also kicked a field goal while Rattler was in the game.
Zach Wilson replaced Rattler and led two scoring drives in the second quarter. They moved the ball again in the third with Wilson at the helm, but a missed field goal kept the Saints from putting more points on the board. Wilson finished the day 11-of-16 for 145 yards and a touchdown. After the game, Wilson was asked if he thinks he made a case for jumping ahead of Rattler on the depth chart.
“I don’t think about it like that,” Wilson said. “Obviously I’m here to compete. I would love to be the two, I would love to find my way up there. That’s why I chose to come here, to have an opportunity to compete, but it’s out of my control. . . . I’m still young, but I feel like I’ve been able to play in a lot of games and see a lot of different things, and so I feel like it’s been able to slow down a little bit for me. Being able to use that to my advantage and just see how good I can be and, at the end of the day, whatever happens happens.”
Head coach Kellen Moore didn’t commit to any changes to how the quarterback reps are doled out in practice and said he thought Rattler did some positive things, but a repeat of Saturday’s outing in the team’s next preseason game could lead to a change in plans for the 53-man roster in New Orleans.
