Seahawks announce joint practice sessions with Titans in major training camp change

For the entirety of the Pete Carroll era, the Seattle Seahawks resisted the idea of holding joint practices during preseason.

Well there’s a new coach in town, and the Seahawks are going to be doing joint practices in Mike Macdonald’s first season in charge.

In a joint announcement (heh heh), the Seahawks and Tennessee Titans confirmed there will be practices held prior to their Week 2 preseason matchup on August 17.

“The Seahawks will travel to Nashville ahead of their second preseason game, taking part in a pair of practices at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park,” the Seahawks press release said.

“The joint practices will be on Wednesday, August 14 and Thursday, August 15, then the Seahawks and Titans will face off in a preseason game on Saturday, August 17 kicking off at 4 p.m. PT.”

I cannot recall the last time the Seahawks held joint practices with anyone even prior to Pete, but here’s what Carroll had to say last year about why he didn’t do joint practices:

“I think we control practice better the way we do it,” Carroll said to the Seattle Times. “Look how hard we were running against each other the other day. More than that, we cherish the preseason games. We use the preseason games. I’ve done those practices before, but we feel like we can keep our focus and stay within the stuff we need to do.”

Carroll also added that “a couple of teams” asked over the years to hold joint practices with Seattle, but obviously the Seahawks never accepted.

Update: Evidently, this is the first joint practice the Seahawks have scheduled since 1988, against the Houston Oilers, which is perhaps fitting since they’re now the Tennessee Titans.

As ever, we’ll be on watch for any skirmishes that often arise in these joint practice sessions, but the main story is Seattle looking at ways to operate differently than we’re accustomed to seeing.