The Browns held their second set of joint practices with the Eagles, participating in two days of practices ahead of the second week of the preseason.
Cleveland and Philadelphia have a recent history of facing off during the preseason, holding joint practices in 2022, 2023 and 2025. The Browns traveled to Philadelphia in 2023 and hosted the Eagles in 2022.
For both teams, pairing up their projected starters and veteran players presents the opportunity to face a different scheme. After weeks of lining up against the Browns’ defense, the quarterbacks experienced a new defensive front and secondary.
“Vic Fangio’s scheme is very different than Jim Schwartz’s scheme. So, for our quarterbacks, having gone against Coach Schwartz and our defense over and over going back to the spring for so many reps, they are just different rules in the coverages. There are different deployments of the front,” Stefanski said. “The quarterbacks had some unique challenges out there, not to mention they have great players – the personnel is excellent, as we all know with them being the defending Super Bowl champs – but Coach Fangio has a very unique defense, and it was good for our guys to go up against that a couple times.”
While QB Kenny Pickett only participated in 7-on-7 drills as he recovers from a hamstring injury, and QB Shedeur Sanders endured an oblique strain in early throwing drills on the first day of joint practices, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees saw how QB Joe Flacco and Gabriel adapted over the two practices – especially in their pocket movement. One of the strengths of the Eagles’ defense is in their front, and the way they utilize stunts and twists is different than the Browns’ pass rush. Those changes forced the quarterbacks to maneuver in the pocket differently and provided a teaching moment for all of their quarterbacks.
Both Stefanski and Rees added Flacco and Gabriel made competitive throws in critical down situations – such as in 2-minute drills, third downs, red zone or two-point conversion drills. From their perspective, the quarterbacks improved from the first joint practice to the second.
On the first day, the Browns struggled to connect with their receivers, with multiple dropped passes throughout drills in practice. So, the coaching staff challenged the group to start faster on Day Two.
“Day One got off to a slow start and then had a pretty good finish to practice,” Rees said. “So, we really challenged those guys to come out and start fast and felt like we did that. And then we had two good 2-minute drives there at the end to close it out. So, really liked the intensity and how intentional we were throughout those practices.”