​The Jacksonville Jaguars are set to begin two days of joint practices with the New Orleans Saints before the teams square off in their opening preseason game on Saturday.Joint practices offer players a great chance to compete against other teams instead of going up against their own teammates, which they have done day after day for weeks. For the starters, who rarely play in preseason games anymore due to injury concerns, joint practices are a great way to get live reps against an actual opponent without (as much) risk. Coaches can set up specific game situations during the practices so players can work on whatever they need to.During his media availability on Wednesday, Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile spoke about the value he sees in joint practices and the different environment they bring compared to regular practices.“Yeah. I think the guys get excited about it, anytime you’re playing against somebody else, so that’s what’s exciting about it. And then, to see how everybody fares when the lights go on. That’s what’s fun about it for me.”Campanile was also asked about the difference in hitting during joint practices. He talked about coaching it the same way and having his players do what they’ve been coached to do, whether it’s against the Jaguars’ own offense or a different team.“I think you’re always coaching for it to be the same thing. How you enter. If you’re entering near foot, if you’re entering great with gray pad level, some of those things that sound like they’re cliche, things we’ve heard since we were little kids playing peewee football, like low man wins. That’s all real. So, in the individual, that’s what you got to be training. And I think that when you get out there against somebody else, anytime you’re competing with even our offense and you get an opportunity to go compete in a joint practice right now, you’re testing that. So hopefully it’s all the same thing. We’re running violently through contact. The fight starts on contact, so hopefully we have great leg drive, throughout this next week.”He also touched on coaches being able to have control over what is getting worked on during practices as opposed to the actual preseason game, which he finds very valuable.“In a game, yeah, maybe a preseason game. But in practice, I think we’re always trying to do that even against ourselves. You’re scripting who’s in when, what you want to see and you’re usually in communication with these joint practices with the opposing team. What the situations are going to be so you can be prepared for that and see how those guys show up in those situations.”Both the Jaguars’ players and coaches are looking forward to sharing the field with the Saints for the next couple of days. The starters, who won’t see the field on Saturday, will be able to get some very important work in and have real competition against another team. The backups also get a chance to show something versus an opponent and will have their perfo