Joint practices are a great opportunity for teams to get a real look at what other opponents have planned ahead of the upcoming NFL season. After months of battling teammates, it's the first real chance to compete against another team in a live setting.

On Tuesday, the first round of joint practices kicks off, headlined by a high-profile clash between two playoff hopefuls: the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams. Speaking ahead of the practice, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott explained why the session could be especially valuable, given Dallas will face the Rams once in the regular season — and potentially again in the postseason if everything breaks right.

"It's all you can ask for," Prescott said. "This is a team that we're going to play in the season, and it's probably a team that if we want to get to where we want to get to, we're going to have to see them again. So call this probably one of the first of three meetings, I'd assume, if everybody takes care of business. So it's definitely going to be a test. It's going to be fun. It's going to be two great teams competing against each other. And at the end of the day, it's practice. We'll have a lot of time after that to clean it up and to say, 'This is what we've got to get better,' but we can't go out here and also have a hell of a practice and think we've done something."

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The Cowboys finished 7-9-1 last season — the first under head coach Brian Schottenheimer and with All-Pro wide receiver George Pickens in the fold. Both are back in 2026, and Dallas has also revamped a defense that ranked among the league's worst a year ago. Expectations are considerably higher in Dallas this time around.

The Rams, meanwhile, enter as one of the Super Bowl favorites. They were already one of the best teams in the NFC last season, and their chances of bringing another Lombardi Trophy to LA only went up after trading for Myles Garrett in June.

Joint practices tend to bring a little chippiness on their own, and with two of the NFC's more talented, star-studded rosters squaring off, Tuesday's session could produce no shortage of headlines. And to Prescott's point, this could be just one of three matchups between these teams this season — the Cowboys and Rams are set to face off in Week 15 in Dallas, a game that could carry real playoff seeding implications.

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