Lions and Patriots Have Discussed Holding Joint Preseason Practices Again

Lions and Patriots last held joint practices in Allen Park ahead of their 2019 preseason game

If NFL preseason football starts on time this year, the Detroit Lions will open on the road against the New England Patriots on August 13, 2020.

"The Lions and Patriots have discussed holding joint training camp practices this summer, though plans could be scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic," according to the Detroit Free Press.

Similarly, Detroit opened preseason action against New England in 2019 and held a series of joint practices.

Head coach Matt Patricia revealed last year he heavily favored joint practices since they break up the "monotony" of camp and they allow him to better evaluate veterans who don't have a chance to see the field much during the preseason.

“It’s one of the things we kind of went to when I was at New England a while ago, where we fell through the course of training camp -- got to the third week of training camp, guys maybe got tired of hitting each other," Patricia said. 

He added, "Got tired of some of those competitions we were doing. Bringing in another team kind of revitalized some of that. I think it’s very important for the veterans and really the entire team, where we get a good opportunity to go out and run some different things that we might not run in some preseason games and get a chance to take a look at some different packages and some different things that we might do that not necessarily we are working for the season that wouldn’t be prevalent in the game. Just in general it’s good to just have fresh competition to go out and work against somebody new.”

If the league decides to proceed with the preseason, as scheduled, it will provide another early opportunity for Detroit to measure up against the organization they are striving to emulate.

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