Competition continues to fuel the New England Patriots heading into 2026.
Upcoming joint practices with the Philadelphia Eagles in Foxboro on Wednesday and Thursday offer another opportunity for the team to contend against new faces.
Different opponents create different matchups, making those sessions more competitive and productive.
“It’s competitiveness. Not going against the same guys every day,” wide receiver Kayshon Boutte said after Monday’s training camp practice about what makes joint practices
valuable learning experiences. “At receiver, we get good matchups this upcoming week. We got [Quinyon Mitchell], [Cooper DeJean] and we got [Tariq Woolen]. So, I mean, that’s good for all us guys, seeing different guys.”
Over the last several years, the Eagles have been known for their dominance on both sides of the trenches. Their offense, in particular, is composed of a hard-nosed unit that blocks in front of their star running back, Saquon Barkley.
Head coach Mike Vrabel sees the upcoming practices as a chance to emphasize physicality.
“I think the message this week is really just physicality,” Boutte said of Vrabel’s message entering this week. “[Philadelphia’s] coming here this week. A great team, but it all starts up front. So, we have to handle our thing up front [and] win our battles outside. They’re known for winning. They’re a good team. They came here three years ago. We joint-practiced [with] them. So, I think that was pretty cool. So, another opportunity, two days, to get better.”
Boutte’s focus on the Eagles’ secondary is only one aspect of the competition New England will contend with across the two sessions.
For right tackle Morgan Moses, it begins at the line of scrimmage, where physicality is the focal point of his role on offense.
“Obviously, establish ourselves as what we need to do up front,” Moses said about what he’d like to accomplish against the Eagles. “They have a great [defensive] line and a great offensive line, and football’s never changed over the course of years that it’s been played. It’s won at the line of scrimmage. So, we have a great task at hand to see where we’re at, and we’re going to step on this football field and go at it.”
On the other side of the trenches, second-year outside linebacker Elijah Ponder kept his goal for the joint practices simple: “to get better.”
Last week, New England hosted the Indianapolis Colts for a joint practice ahead of their preseason matchup on Aug. 13. In preparation for Philadelphia, Vrabel wants to see continued consistency with his team.
“We have to just continue to be more consistent; we have to continue to understand the opponent changes, that what we see in the beginning of practice is usually going to be some of the same things that we see in the end,” Vrabel said Monday morning.
“If you don’t fix problems or get things addressed or recognize new plays, that’s going to be what it’s like in the game. So, I don’t know if I learned anything other than we have to continue to keep improving, and that’s the goal.”
With the Eagles staying in town for two days, the Patriots can focus on several areas rather than condensing everything into a single practice, as they did with the Colts.
“I think that we’ll be able to do a lot more field work on the first day and then probably focus on the red zone the next day,” Vrabel added. “But other than that, we tried to put everything into one day versus [Indianapolis], and now we’ll have much more concentrated work the second day in the red zone.”
Following the practices, New England will host the Eagles in Gillette Stadium on Saturday for the team’s second preseason game at 7 p.m.
