Joint practices led Patriots to sit starters vs Jags

[Deadpulse]

http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4804734/joint-practices-a-big-factor-in-patriots-sitting-nfl-high-40-players-in-opener

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"We played a lot of guys in practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday against Jacksonville, so a lot of guys that are going to play for us got a lot of reps," Belichick had said in a pregame radio interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub. "[This game] will give us a chance to look at some of those guys that didn't get as many reps in practice, so we'll try to balance that out."

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After further review, they had a league-high 40 players who didn't play in Thursday's first exhibition game.

That's nearly half of the 90-man roster -- and nearly double the next NFL team in terms of inactive players.

Reiss brings up an interesting question:

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With Belichick and the Patriots sitting so many more players than any other club, it sparks the question: Are joint practices essentially replacing preseason games in Belichick's view?

The Patriots will be practicing with the Texans for two days this week. Are we going to see more guys sit again due to these joint practices?

[iothar]

Hope so. Really makes evaluation players much easier.

 

I bet if this becomes the norm, it will become more rare for a diamond in the rough player to get cut in one camp and succeed somewhere else. With more snaps and opportunities everyone will have a better chance to distinguish themselves.

[TomRalph]

I'd say it's a given that these practices will replaces pre-season games when it comes to playing starters. The coaches can implements controls like no-hitting the QB and tackling being a little less forceful. Also remove some of the plays which cause most injuries like kick and punt returns. 

[Hunter2_1]

Bill at the cutting edge, as always.

I wish we had footage of the upcoming JP with Houston. Would be interesting to see if Cannon owns Watt again. We are the Watt-killers. 

[Troy Brown]

I imagine it's much safer on the injury front. If I'm not entirely mistaken, which I might be, BB was pretty sweet on the joint practices before the rest of the league, no? 

[Deadpulse]

1 hour ago, Troy Brown said:

I imagine it's much safer on the injury front. If I'm not entirely mistaken, which I might be, BB was pretty sweet on the joint practices before the rest of the league, no? 

Pretty sure youre right. Those early ones with the Saints may have started the recent trend. 

[iothar]

Saints and Chicago?

[Deadpulse]

Is it more fun to watch pre-season games with less starters? Less heart attacks, more training camp binkies. Or is it boring, casual fans probably will tune in less than they already do. An interesting thought on this is if it comes common practice around the league, what does the NFL do? Do they ban joint practices, limit them, or is this that final push to get the pre-season knocked down to 2 games? They have already talked about it and if viewers are significantly dropping due to starters never playing...