It looks like the Bears won't hold joint practices this year...
During the NFL offseason activities, NFL teams have started conducting joint practices with other NFL teams ahead of their preseason matchups.
Joint practices have grown a lot in popularity over the years, but they aren't mandatory for teams. A total of 23 teams partook in at least one series of joint practices this year, and seven of them had joint practices with two teams.
One of the toughest parts of training camp is gauging how good your team is when the offense is beating up the defense and the defense is beating up the offense. Maybe your defense only looks good everyday because your offense is bad.
When you bring in another team and aren't just practicing against your own teammates, it increases the level of competition and makes practice into a more realistic scenario.
However, it does not look like the bears will take part in one of these practices this preseason. Here is what Courtney Cronin reported last week:
Another important part is the competition aspect of these practices. Coaches use joint practices as a way to generate competition and to see if their team is willing to compete at a high level. Training camp can be long, boring and arduous.
Competing against another team gives a team a spark and it breaks up the malaise of camp. If a player isn't willing to compete at a high level, he shouldn't be playing sports never mind playing in the NFL.
While I am disappointed to hear that the bears won't be able to compete against a different team in practices, I trust Coach Flus' judgement and I am certain he will do what is best for this team at the moment!
