Patriots joint practice opponent revealed

Training camp is a long way away with multiple major dates on the NFL calendar between now and then. However that's not stopping teams from planning ahead, which it seems like the New England Patriots have been doing.

In his weekly notes on Sunday, ESPN's Mike Reiss reported that Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni "had preliminary discussions" about the two teams meeting for joint practices in Foxboro this summer. A day later, Sirianni confirmed that will be the case when speaking at the NFL League Meetings.

Joint practices can be some of the most important sessions of training camp for NFL teams. It gives teams a chance to evaluate where they're at against different players and a different scheme, rather than those they've been going head-to-head with day-after-day a few weeks into camp.

There practices also allow coaches to create game-like situations in the controlled environment of a practice. In the past, projected starters have gotten the heavy majority of the reps in joint practices then played less in the following preseason game.

Whether the Patriots and Eagles hold one or two joint practices remains to be seen. While in the past teams would often hold two days of joint practices that number has been cut down to a single session in recent years.

As Reiss noted on Sunday, a potential holdup to the two teams having joint practices was the NFL granting the teams' request to face each other in the preseason. With the practices set, it's safe to assume the Eagles will be one of three teams the Patriots will face in the preseason this year. They'll host two preseason games this season and have one on the road as part of the NFL's rotating 17-game schedule format.

This will be the fifth time the Patriots and Eagles meet for a joint practice, making them the Patriots' most common joint practice partner since 2010. Their most recent session came in 2024, which was also in Foxboro.

Even five months out from those joint practices, one storyline is already clear. Expect plenty of talk about A.J. Brown that week, as trade rumors have tied him to the Patriots throughout this NFL offseason. However, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said on Monday that the Patriots "haven't had any conversations about anything regarding [Brown] in a long time."