The Jacksonville Jaguars will once again have joint practices during the preseason with a possible Super Bowl contender. Next up is the Minnesota Vikings.
Per the team’s public relations department, Fox Sports and other websites, “The teams announced the venture Thursday. They will practice Aug. 15-16 together at Minnesota’s new, sprawling practice facility in the Twin Cities suburb of Eagan. They will play a preseason game Aug. 18.
Per Fox Sports, “It will be Jacksonville’s third set of joint practices since coach Doug Marrone took over in 2017. The Jaguars practiced at New England and hosted Tampa Bay during training camp last year.”
The Jaguars and the Minnesota Vikings both played in their conference championship games, falling short to the New England Patriots and the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Now, the team with two of the best defenses in the NFL will scrimmage together, with the hope of learning from each other, making their chances of reaching Super Bowl 53 that much greater.
“We look forward to traveling to Minnesota to work with Coach Zimmer and his team at their new state-of-the-art facility, the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center,” said head coach Doug Marrone, via a press release by the team’s public relations department. “Having the opportunity to practice with another conference finalist during training camp will allow us to compete with great players and coaches and continue to push ourselves. We believe that these joint sessions will provide us with an opportunity to improve as a football team, which is always the goal for training camp.”
The Minnesota Vikings have a new look on offense with Kirk Cousins behind center and the return of Dalvin Cook at running back.
The practices will also give Jaguars’ quarterback Blake Bortles another opportunity to face a stiff defense, one that was as dominant as Jacksonville’s last season.
As the Jaguars stated in their press release, both joint sessions with the Vikings will be open to the public. Due to anticipated high demand for training camp, the Minnesota Vikings will set a daily attendance capacity, which is expected to be approximately 5,000 fans per day. General admission tickets for training camp will be free, but fans must reserve tickets in advance on Vikings.com.