Every year, we see scuffles take place during joint training camp practices. Teams with bad blood (or maybe a few hotheaded players) get into an altercation that results in a swarm of members from opposing teams getting into a scrum. Don't expect that to be the case with the Pittsburgh Steelers' joint practice in 2025.
On Wednesday, NFL Insider Ari Meirov announced the NFL's full joint practice schedule for August this year. Obviously, the Steelers won't be facing a divisional opponent (the league would be asking for a fight if that were the case). They won't be facing a team from the AFC or even a team with a memorable history from the NFC. Instead, their joint practice will come against a docile Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad.
In case you were wondering, these teams don't have much of a history together, and we couldn't try to chalk this up as a 'rivalry' if we tried.
The Pittsburgh Steelers' joint practice against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should be uneventful
The Pittsburgh Steelers have a 10-2 all-time regular-season record against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This means there have been just 12 total games played between these two teams since the Bucs became a franchise back in 1976—a dozen games in a 48-year span.
Since 2002, these two teams have played each other exactly once every four years, with the Steelers winning six of their last seven contests against the Buccaneers.
Mike Evans, a long-time Pro Bowl receiver for Tampa Bay, has been known to get in his share of physical altercations in the past. But we're talking about an NFL veteran who turns 32 years old this August and one who will likely want to let his play do the talking when meaningful football starts up again at this stage of his career.
There are plenty of other things to look for if chippy behavior doesn't occur during this joint practice. Will Joey Porter Jr. get a chance to go one-on-one with Evans? How will Aaron Rodgers look against the Buccaneers' starting defense? Will Steelers' defensive linemen and edge rushers get the best of Tampa Bay's offensive line?
Unfortunately, this joint practice is closed to the public, and we'll be getting all of this information second-hand from beat reporters. All of these factors make the Pittsburgh Steelers' joint practice against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers less exciting than we hoped.
But this is just practice, after all. What else could we expect?