Joint training camp practices are back for another year.
Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh announced Saturday that the Ravens will travel to Philadelphia for a series of joint training camp practices with the Eagles leading up to their Week 2 preseason game.
“[Eagles Head] Coach [Chip] Kelly and I are working on the practice schedules right now, so we’re excited about that,” Harbaugh said.
The Ravens and Eagles square off on Saturday, Aug. 22, and Harbaugh said the plan is to travel to Philadelphia three days before that game.
This will be the second year in a row the Ravens have participated in joint training camp practices, as they hosted the San Francisco 49ers in Baltimore last year. Harbaugh has stressed the value of those practice sessions, and he wanted to find a way to replicate that experience again in 2015.
Harbaugh has close ties to the Eagles organization from his time as an assistant coach there, but he doesn’t have a pre-existing relationship with Kelly. Harbaugh’s brother, Jim, knows Kelly well from their days as college coaches in the Pac 12.
“Jim has always spoken really highly of him and I obviously have great respect for him,” Harbaugh said. “We were just talking at the owner’s meetings and were kind of wondering why we don’t play each other more in the preseason, and wanted to see if we could work something out, and it looks like we’re going to be able to do that.”
The other logistical question for this season is whether the Ravens plan to stay on the West Coast for either of their back-to-back trips in the regular season. The Ravens play the Broncos in Week 1 followed by the Raiders in Week 2, and head out west again in Weeks 6-7 to face the 49ers and Cardinals.
Staying out west could minimize the toll of cross-country travel, and the Ravens are looking into the possibility of making that happen.
“We have not made a final decision on staying out there. We’re leaning that direction, especially the first week,” Harbaugh said. “We have a couple of sleep study doctors and time-zone doctors who we’re talking to. We just want to do the smartest thing. We’ll probably have a decision on that in two weeks.”
