The Miami Dolphins have wrapped up their Organized Team Activities (OTAs) and obligatory minicamp. Looking ahead, the Dolphins’ squad will convene again at the end of July for their training camp preparations. This is all part of the structured build-up towards the 2025 NFL season, for which Miami will participate in three joint practice sessions.
The NFL took the wraps off the full details including dates, venues, and participating teams for the 2025 joint practice sessions last week. For the Dolphins, the process is quite straightforward and already laid out. The Dolphins will be conducting their three joint practices with their three preseason rivals: the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The joint practice sessions are intentionally planned to collaborate with their rivals leading up to their preseason games. The Dolphins’ preseason schedule for the 2025 NFL consists of matches at Chicago on the 10th of August, at Detroit on the 16th, and at their home turf against Jacksonville on the 23rd.
To coincide with these outings, the Dolphins will also conduct joint practices with each of these teams a few days before their preseason games. This provides an invaluable opportunity to prepare and strategize effectively ahead of the actual competition.
NFL joint practices serve a specific purpose in the preseason. These sessions offer the players and the teams a chance to go up against another competitor in contrast to the colleague’s teams they routinely practice with during OTAs, the mandatory minicamp, and training camp.
These encounters offer fresh perspectives and help teams to gauge their strengths and weaknesses against an outside perspective. This is essentially different than regular practice sessions which are mostly internal.
The NFL allows teams to organize up to four joint practice sessions in the lead-up to the preseason. This is a standard procedure followed in the NFL and is viewed as an essential aspect of the overall preparatory process for the season.
Looking back at the previous year, most teams embraced the advantage of these joint practice sessions. In fact, during the 2024 season, 30 out of the 32 NFL teams participated in at least one joint practice session in their preseason schedule.
Objectively, these joint practices provide teams with a unique opportunity to pit their strategies, skills, and synergies against external opponents before they hit the field for the actual competitive matches. Thereby, increasing the odds of their success in the games.
The concept of joint practices in the pre-season has been welcomed by most NFL teams, given the scope it presents for their players to broaden their experience, skills, and strategic understanding when going head-to-head against different playing styles and strategies.
As per the proposed schedule for the Dolphins, these practices are well-distributed across the three preseason games, helping to ensure that their players are in a competitive mode and that any kinks in their strategies or formations have been ironed out before the actual clashes.
The expectation is that these practice sessions will play a vital role in shaping the Dolphins’ prospects for the 2025 NFL season. By harnessing the insights and experiences from these joint practice sessions, the Dolphins’ squad can equip itself better for the challenges ahead.
As the Dolphins gear up for an exciting 2025 season, these joint practice sessions will be keenly observed by fans and commentators alike, offering early glimpses of the team’s potential and readiness for the high stakes NFL contention.