Saints have joint practice with regular season opponent on Thursday

IRVINE, Ca. (WGNO) – The New Orleans Saints will be doing something this training camp the team was unable to do last season: Have a joint practice.

During the team’s 2024 training camp, the Black and Gold were supposed to have joint practices with San Francisco, prior to their preseason matchup, but the 49ers mountain of injuries caused the NFC West team to back out of the joint sessions.

Following Wednesday’s practice though, Saints head coach Kellen Moore confirmed the team will travel to Carson, California, and have a joint practice with the Niners’ divisional foe, the Los Angeles Rams, on Thursday.

“It’ll be an awesome, awesome setup, really fired up for that. Obviously, anytime you get a chance to team up with another team, go through joint practices, you just go through so much situational football, play against someone different,” Moore said.

The first-year head coach will play the starters about “60 percent” of the joint practice, and while 10 positions of the starting unit will remain stable, Moore will continue rotating the quarterbacks, during Thursday’s scrimmage.

“That’s a big part of this thing. These QBs get a different experience, and it’ll be great for them,” the head coach continued.

The workload will be heavy for the Saints top players, and Moore and his staff will determine how tomorrow’s practice impacts snap counts for the team’s second preseason game against the Jaguars.

“Once we get through that process, then we’ll evaluate what Sunday looks like with Jacksonville back in New Orleans,” Moore added.

The unique part about the joint practice though is the Saints will face the Rams in the regular season, but the first-year head coach already discussed the situation with Los Angeles’ head coach Sean McVay.

“We talked about that. It’s the back half, week nine. We’re gonna be eight games in. We’re probably gonna have a good feel for what both of us are doing at that point,” Moore finished.

The Rams beat the Saints 21-14 at the Superdome last season.

Regarding roster moves, the Black and Gold signed offensive lineman Mike Panasluk, while Trevor Penning battles a toe injury the 2022 first-rounder suffered against the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Saints also placed wide receiver Bub Means (ankle) and tight end Mason Pline (upper body) on injured reserved.

Thursday’s joint practice will not be open to the public.

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Saints have joint practice with regular season opponent on Thursday

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