The New Orleans Saints love their joint practices, and Kellen Moore announced they're diving head first into them during their 2026 training camp. New Orleans has preseason matchups versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys. They'll have joint practices with every single one of them.
The Jaguars will travel to Metairie before the preseason opener, and the Saints will go on the road to California for the other two joint practice sessions. The Cowboys practice in Oxnard, California. Instead of staying in California longer, the Saints will practice with them in the same week they hold joint practices with the Rams. After they play the Rams, the Saints will head back home for a normal travel schedule.
This is a move from the normal one joint practice the Saints normally try to aim for. They made the concession of a longer joint practice just to make sure they get their players in front of multiple different teams.
Saints starters may not see the field much in preseason now
Kellen Moore heavily stands by joint practices. He told media members on Thursday, “These joint practices, I believe in them. Just my exposure to them as a coach, and it gives you a chance to get really good work with, particularly, your starters and your number ones. I think a lot of it comes down to teaming up with the right other organizations, and I feel like we got that this year."
Moore emphasized the benefit these practices can have for the starting lineup. The greatest benefit of joint practices is they give you more good on good reps than you'll see in a preseason game. If the Jaguars and Saints didn't have joint practices, you may see starters play for two drives. Let's generously say that 15 plays. It pales into comparison to what each team could get in the practices.
The practices give the teams to curate situations, like red zone or specific third down scenarios that may not come up in those 10-15 plays. You get more work between first units. Many times, that will result in less snaps in the actual game.
It'll be interesting to see how the Saints handle that, especially with the Rams and Cowboys being shorter days. It all could depend on how much work they get in the shorter time. With enough work though, the Saints may not feel the need to play their starters in the game because they've already accomplished the point of the exhibition in the joint practices.
Now it's hard to apply that to players who are in ongoing battles. For example, the battle for the STAR role will likely need live reps to truly decide who gets the job. Also, you have players who haven't played the position much, so gaining experience should be a priority. You look at a player like Chase Young, however. He may not need much preseason reps beyond the joint practices.
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