The Green Bay Packers will host joint practices with the New England Patriots later this summer, according to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. Therefore, reading between the lines, the Patriots will be one of the Packers’ three preseason opponents when the NFL schedule is announced in the coming weeks.
Times and dates for the practices are still unknown but typically occur the week leading up to the exhibition.
Coach Matt LaFleur has been a proponent of joint practices since arriving in Green Bay in 2019, a major change from the previous regime. In his first season, their hosting of the Houston Texans received pushback from Aaron Rodgers, who wasn’t a fan of how vanilla it was schematically.
“I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t do it for another 14 years,” Rodgers said at the time.
LaFleur didn’t share the same sentiment and attempted to host the Cleveland Browns the following year, except the league canceled joint practices due to the pandemic. However, they returned in 2021 and 2022, with the Packers hosting the New York Jets and New Orleans Saints, respectively.
“I think it affords you the opportunity to have your guys go out there and compete against something different,” LaFleur said in May 2022. “It just brings a different level of competition, I would say, and what it really does for us is it affords us the ability to feel like we got good work in with the veterans, and then not play them in the (preseason) game.”
In lieu of risking veterans to injury in the preseason, Green Bay has used joint practices as a controlled competitive environment that measures where they are before the start of the regular season. However, it will be interesting to see how they treat this year with a much younger roster and Jordan Love’s first season as the starting quarterback.