The NFL announced joint practice sessions for 2026 training camps around the league. It should come as no surprise to Chiefs Kingdom that the Kansas City Chiefs will not participate in joint training camp practices.

The team hasn’t participated in such occurrences since Andy Reid first arrived as the team’s head coach in 2013. It’s not for a lack of other teams trying to get the Chiefs to participate. Detroit Lions HC Dan Campbell tried and failed in 2024.

“It just, it didn’t work out,” Campbell told The Detroit News. “I had talked to Coach Reid a while back; that’s just not necessarily something that they do.”

Why do the Chiefs not participate in joint training camp practices?

Why don’t the Chiefs engage in joint practices, given how popular they have become among NFL teams? Reid first addressed the situation during his second season as head coach in Kansas City in 2014.

“I’ve just never been that big on that,” Reid said of joint practices in 2024. “A lot of teams do it. Successful teams do it. I really don’t want to give anybody anything that I don’t have to give.”

It’s not just about guarding against plays, names, and other trade secrets. It’s about guarding against teaching points and how you practice, too.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities to do it, but probably from a selfish standpoint, in today’s world, with technology, there’s not a lot of secrets,” Reid told reporters back in 2015. “You have your coaching points, teaching points you try to teach on the field, and I really don’t want anyone hearing that. That’s my own personal feeling. As much as I can keep in-house in today’s world, I want to do. I think you give up a little bit of that when you work with them and some of these things get a little out of hand. Things happen with the competition.”

That’s another element Reid doesn’t like about joint practices. He has specific goals he wants the team to achieve in each practice session. The competition changes when you’re facing off against opponents. It distracts from the task at hand, with attention to detail falling by the wayside. That’s especially true when fights break out in practice.

“The way we go about it – I think we go fast, we practice hard, we do those things amongst ourselves, and the guys challenge each other, and I don’t think there’s a better way to do it, if your guys are willing to do that,” Reid explained in 2024. “Our guys are up for that challenge, plus you’re not giving things away, so you can’t help but do that. Then you’re not having those skirmishes that you get in these inter-squad deals, and no matter how much you talk – you put on a different uniform, you’re the enemy. It doesn’t matter if it’s during joint practices or not.”

Andy Reid might not be able to avoid joint practices forever

The NFL will eventually explore expanding to an 18-game season. As they do, an increased emphasis on how teams operate in the offseason could become the norm. One idea that has been floated is to eliminate another preseason game, reducing the preseason to two games. With that type of decision comes the question of how teams would replace the important padded practice time in the exhibition game.

The prevailing suggestion is that participation in joint padded practice sessions during training camp could become mandatory. Right now, it’s strictly optional, but the league seems to be exploring joint practices as a fixture in the offseason schedule. This is far from decided, but it seems like the natural path for the league to take should they expand the schedule to 18 games.

Coach Reid has always been amicable in saying what the league says goes. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear in the future that he’s one of the strongest voices pushing back on this idea. There’s a purposeful reason that he prefers to avoid joint practices. He should be allowed to keep things that way, if he so chooses.