More joint practices against a familiar opponent on horizon

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For the ninth time in the last 11 years, the Eagles this summer will hold at least one session of joint practices during training camp.

In each of his first two years as Eagles head coach, Nick Sirianni held two separate joint practice sessions – vs. the Patriots and Jets in 2021 and the Dolphins and Browns last summer.

Sirianni holds joint practices in very high regard – much higher regard than preseason games. No Eagles coach had ever held two joint practices sessions before he got here.

We don’t know the Eagles’ preseason schedule yet, and we don’t know if there will be a second set of joint practices, but Browns coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters covering the Browns at the combine in Indianapolis according to the Browns' website that the Browns will be in Philadelphia the third week of the preseason, which would be somewhere in the range of Thursday, Aug. 17, through Saturday, Aug. 19. 

The joint practices generally begin three days before the actual preseason game is played.

The Browns will face the Jets in the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 4, but the following week will be the Eagles’ preseason opener. 

The Eagles and Browns held joint practices at the Browns’ facility in Berea, Ohio, last summer.

“The joint practices are giving you in-game experience, controlled game experience for two days in a row at practice to work on things that you want to work on and the other team wants to work on and you don't get your quarterback hit, stuff like that,” he said last summer. 

“It's not live to the ground. So it's a controlled experience.”

The first Eagles joint practices came during the summer of 1985 against the Lions at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. The teams practiced together again in Rochester in the summer of 1986, with rookie head coach Buddy Ryan and Lions coach Darryl Rogers feuding the entire time, the two teams brawling on the field, and Ryan blasting Rodgers, the Lions organization, the practice facilities, the hotel and the entire state of Michigan on the way out.

That was it for Eagles joint practices until the summer of 1998, when the Eagles practiced against Wade Phillips' Bills for a couple days at Lehigh.

Andy Reid never held joint practices, but Chip Kelly held them all three years he was here – with the Patriots in 2013 and 2014 and the Ravens in 2015. Doug Pederson’s teams practiced against the Dolphins in 2017 and Ravens in 2019.

Eagles-Browns practices in August will be a homecoming for Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who grew up in Philadelphia and played football at St. Joe’s Prep and Penn before starting his NFL coaching career with the Vikings in 2006.

It will also be a return to the NovaCare Complex for new Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who was the Eagles’ defensive coordinator when they won the Super Bowl in 2017.

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