The New York Giants are gearing up to conduct a pair of joint practices with the New York Jets this week — the first in Florham Park on Tuesday and the second in East Rutherford on Wednesday. The two teams will then square off on Saturday night at MetLife Stadium in Week 2 of the preseason.
“It’s good to go against different schemes, different players, matchups, as long as you practice the right way. (Aaron Glenn) and I have a really good relationship,” head coach Brian Daboll told reporters on Sunday.
“We’ve talked about it a number of times (about) our scheduling and what we’re looking to get out of it, which is good, competitive work against different teams that do different things and have different matchups. We’re able to look at their team, they’re able to look at us. We got a lot of players out there that are competing for a roster spot, so I think it serves multiple roles.”
Joint practices tend to be a bit more intense and often chippy. While Daboll and Glenn don’t want players to lose their edge, they would prefer to avoid any actual fighting.
As such, the head coaching duo has painstakingly planned the structure of the practices and will be careful to avoid any cheap shots or fighting.
“We have an outline of how we’re going to practice in terms of the periods, when we’re going to be separate, and when we’re going to be together,” Daboll said. “Usually, that involves some type of one-on-one work, and then I’ll be on the Giants offensive field, he’ll be on the Jets offensive field, and what we talked about is when he’s on that field and I’m on that field, you’re the head coach of that field.
“We want to practice the right way, get work out of it, try to keep the being on the ground and cheap shots and all that other stuff out of it. It’s like we’re practicing against one another on our own teams, but get work out of it against different skillsets, different schemes.”
Daboll and Glenn have been so meticulous in their planning that they’ve included assistants, who have also been communicating since June.
“The drills we do, whether it’s a seven-on-seven or a team, whatever it may be, red zone, third down, we talk about those almost prior to leaving in June and then our assistants go back and forth on some things, we readdress them, we’ve talked — we’ve probably communicated three or four times today already. They had a late night getting back from Green Bay, but it’s good to work with another team and get proper stuff out of it,” Daboll said.
Any time the Giants and Jets get together, things become personal. If Daboll and Glenn can keep that bottled up and focused on football, it will be a credit to them.