Shane Steichen and Colts to hold a joint practice with Eagles
Shane Steichen and the Colts will stop by the NovaCare Complex this summer for a single joint practice with Steichens former team, the Eagles announced Friday.
This will be the third straight year Nick Sirianni has held joint practices with multiple teams. In 2021, his first year as head coach, the Eagles practiced at the NovaCare Complex with the Patriots and the Jets in Florham Park, and last year they practiced with the Browns in Cleveland and the Dolphins in Miami.
Steichen, who spent the last two years as Siriannis offensive coordinator, made it clear last summer hes a big fan of joint practices.
I love the joint practices, to be honest, he said last summer. It breaks up camp. Gives our guys another opponent, and it’s really all about competing and going out. You get two practices and obviously they are in a controlled environment, but you know, you get that true competition, the situations you can set up with them, script it, and then sometimes you have the call-it periods.
It’s just good to go against another opponent. You go against our defense for however long it’s been, 2 weeks, just to see new faces out there in practice will be good for those guys.
Sirianni is also a big believer in joint practices when it comes to evaluating players and those workouts the last couple years have been among the most competitive for the Eagles during training camp.
It helps, because you don’t go out there and play the same defense every single week, Sirianni said last summer. It’s good to get against different schemes and that’s one of the benefits of these joint practices. You have their whole playbook that they can throw at you.
The Eagles will see a couple familiar faces during that single practice in August.
Steichens offensive coordinator in Indianapolis, Jim Bob Cooter, spent the 2021 season on Siriannis Eagles staff, and Gardner Minshew, the Eagles backup quarterback the last two years, is now with the Colts. They also just signed Genard Avery, an Eagles opening-day starter in 2021.
It will also be a homecoming for All-Pro running back Jonathan Taylor, the 2nd-leading rusher in the NFL over the last three years. Taylor grew up in Salem in South Jersey.
Nick Foles was on the Colts last year but was released last month.
The Eagles held joint practices under head coaches Buddy Ryan, Ray Rhodes, Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson but they had never held two sessions before Sirianni became head coach. Andy Reid never held joint practices.
According to the Eagles, the two teams will practice together at the NovaCare Complex only on Tuesday, Aug. 22. They meet in a preseason game at the Linc that Thursday, Aug. 24.
The Eagles are expected to practice against the Browns on Aug. 14 and 15 in advance of their game at the Linc on Aug. 17.
Eagles joint practices go as far back as 1985 and 1986, when they practiced against the Lions at their summer home at Oakland College in Rochester, Michigan.
The Eagles practiced with the Bills at Lehigh in 1998 but that was it until Kelly revived the idea with practices against the Patriots in Philly in 2013 and Foxboro in 2014 and the Ravens at the NovaCare in 2015. Pederson held sessions against the Dolphins in 2017 and Ravens in 2019.
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