Vikings to Host Titans, Cardinals For Joint Practices in August

The Vikings will have joint practices with both of their home preseason opponents during training camp.

Last year, during Kevin O'Connell's first training camp as a head coach, the Vikings hosted the 49ers for joint practices ahead of their preseason game.

O'Connell thought that experience was so beneficial that he's decided to double down on it this year, announcing on Tuesday that the Vikings will host both the Titans and Cardinals for joint practices during this year's training camp.

Camp gets underway in late July, and the Vikings will open their three-game preseason slate by traveling to Seattle to face the Seahawks on Thursday, August 10th. Then they'll return home and have two days of joint practices with the Titans before a preseason matchup against them on Saturday, 8/19 at U.S. Bank Stadium. That'll be followed up by two days of joint practices with the Cardinals, leading into the preseason finale at home against Arizona on 8/26. A few days later, the roster will be cut from 90 players down to 53.

"(This) will give us a tremendous opportunity to have four, four-plus days of really good competition," O'Connell said. "I know both Coach (Mike) Vrabel and Coach Jonathan Gannon, I know what kind of leaders they are, what kind of teams they'll be bringing here, ready to make sure we get some great work. To be able to have that is a critical, critical part of our training camp formula to try to be at our best when the season rolls around."

"I don't know if there's a better facility in the entire NFL — in fact, I know there's not — to host your training camp, allow fans to be here, but also host two NFL teams in back to back weeks. And they can feel comfortable and confident that they're going to come here and be provided what they need to get ready for the season as well."

O'Connell said that, collectively, the Vikings learned a lot about themselves during last year's joint practices with San Francisco. The competitiveness and the productivity of those two days of work reinforced his belief in the value of practicing against another team during camp.

Now the Vikings will get to do it twice, getting two different looks against "two different structures of offense, defense, and special teams" as they practice with the Titans and then the Cardinals in consecutive weeks.

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