Packers to have a joint practice with the Bengals this preseason

On Tuesday, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor stated that the Green Bay Packers will join the team for one joint practice ahead of their preseason Week 1 matchup. Taylor claims that the Bengals only wanted a single joint practice after the Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald swung a helmet at Bengals players during joint practices last season.

The Packers, like the Rams, have a strong tie to Taylor. In 2017, Taylor was the Rams’ assistant receiver coach when current Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur was Los Angeles’ offensive coordinator. Under LaFleur, the Packers have opted to lean into joint practices more, as the team has allowed very few starters to play any sort of significant snaps in the preseason. This will be the first time, though, that LaFleur’s Packers will have joint practices on the road. Previously, LaFleur has hosted joint practices with the Houston Texans (2019), New York Jets (2021) and New Orleans Saints (2022).

On top of a joint practice with the Bengals in Week 1 of the preseason, Green Bay will also host a series of joint practices in preseason Week 2 with the New England Patriots. This should provide new starting quarterback Jordan Love with plenty of reps in a controlled environment in good-on-good situations before the regular season.

For what it’s worth, the team has stated several times that they expect Love to play in the preseason, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the fact that there are only three quarterbacks on the roster. It seems like the team’s approach to playing starters in the preseason is going to change a bit this year, due to the youth and inexperience of the team. Hopefully, that means that they’ll be able to work the kinks out of this new-look offense during the summer months instead of the regular season.