Joint practices with Rams, Raiders will make first preseason game more exciting

It looks like the Los Angeles Rams will be participating in joint practices with the Oakland Raiders in August before the two teams meet for their first preseason game.

Before the Los Angeles Rams and their fans know it, training camp will officially be underway for the 2019 season, which also means preseason won’t be too far around the corner.

Based off last summer’s experience, it seems highly unlikely that Sean McVay will allow some of his key starters like Todd Gurley or Jared Goff to see significant time on the field during preseason, if any at all.

However, just because McVay is expected to rest most of the starters once again doesn’t necessarily mean the first preseason action for Los Angeles against the Oakland Raiders won’t be exciting since this will give an early taste of where both teams stand.

While the Rams will be looking to win the NFC West title for a third year in a row along with another Super Bowl appearance, the Raiders hope to avoid failing to live up to the hype again like last season.

The entire reasoning behind Oakland’s decision to hire Jon Gruden last offseason was to help the Raiders return to the level of being Super Bowl contenders in the AFC once again.

Instead, Oakland continued to look like a work in progress, and unlike the Rams, Gruden will most likely lean towards giving his starters a good amount of playing time during that first preseason matchup since the team needs all of the extra help they can get.

On another note, even if Rams starters end up watching that first preseason game against the Raiders from the sidelines, at least the recently announced joint practices could still benefit them in the long run.

Despite how things played out last year, Oakland was considered one of the big winners from this offseason for numerous reasons, whether it happened to be from acquiring Antonio Brown or taking advantage of having three first-round picks in this year’s draft.

The Raiders may have failed to live up to the hype last season, but if the last few months are any indication of what 2019 has in store, this could be one of the surprise contenders in the AFC.

If this does in fact turn out to be the case, the joint practices with Oakland could benefit Los Angeles in a big way from a competitive standpoint, especially if the starters sit out of the preseason game.

And who knows, maybe this will be the first of two meetings for the Rams with the Raiders if the two teams happen to meet down the road in the winter during Super Bowl 54 in Miami, but there’s no need to jump that far ahead just yet.

For now, the best approach the Rams can take is focusing one day at a time, and make sure they will be in the best position possible when these joint practices do get underway in August.