The dog days of training camp are here so what better way for the Tampa Bay Bucs to shake things up than a practice with another NFL team. Last week it was Jacksonville, this week it's Cleveland.
"It juices the guys up a little bit to get to travel to Jacksonville or have Cleveland come down here and practice," Bucs tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins. "It's a really cool, unique experience."
Joint practices are the norm in the NFL, but back-to-back weeks of practices against another team are more rare. The Bucs are bucking the trend with a second-straight week of joint workouts in an effort to break up the monotony of training camp.
"Going against the same guys every day, you get kind of comfortable," Bucs center Joe Hawley said. "Going against other guys, there's a lot more competition. You get to compete, you get to work on stuff that's really going to transfer over to the field on game day."
"You go against the same guys every day in training camp," Seferian-Jenkins said. "I think you start to get used to certain things they do or certain techniques they use. Being able to go against a different opponent in a practice setting heightens the awareness, heightens the intensity."
It got intense in Jacksonville where a scuffle led to the ejection of Jags defensive lineman Dante Fowler Junior. Increased potential for fights is one of the few cons to joint practices. But there is way more upside.
"There is no downside to getting better," Seferian-Jenkins said.