Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Chargers are expected to hold joint practices this preseason, per NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan. The Saints and Chargers are scheduled to compete in an exhibition game to be scheduled Aug. 17-20. But it looks like ahead of that, the teams will square off for a few days in Costa Mesa, Calif. The practices would be held at the Jack R. Hammett Sports Complex.
If approved by the league, this will be the fourth time since 2017 in which New Orleans and Los Angeles have held joint practice with one another. An annual relationship first spawned by the team’s former head coaches Sean Payton and Anthony Lynn has continued under Saints head coach Dennis Allen, carrying on the tradition with the Chargers’ Brandon Staley. The exact dates and times will be released in May along with the rest of the 2023 schedule. These practices are also usually open to the public, so West Coast Saints fans should get an opportunity to see their team up close and personal.
For a little while, it looked like Payton could be headed to Los Angeles as the Chargers struggled throughout the 2022 season. That would have made for some interesting talking points this summer, but either way, these joint practices have a lot of value for players. It gives the roster an opportunity to compete against unfamiliar players after going up against each other for weeks on end. It also gets Saints personnel out the New Orleans heat, which is always nice.
