The New York Jets will hold their first joint training camp practice on Thursday when the Washington Commanders visit Florham Park, N.J., ahead of their preseason debut on Saturday.

With many starters expected to sit out the preseason clash, Thursday's practice will be a chance to assess both teams' progress two weeks into training camp.

"It's a good opportunity after a long time going up against each other and seeing the same faces and playing against your teammates," Jets tight end Tyler Conklin said.

"Work your craft against different schemes and different people. I think it's a really good opportunity for us as a group offensively. Just come together and keep building on what we've been doing throughout the first two weeks of camp."

A day before participating in a walkthrough on Wednesday because of inclement weather, three fights broke out at Jets practice on Tuesday. Following the third one, Jets coach Robert Saleh huddled the team in the middle of the field to tell his players to keep their cool.

Miles away in East Rutherford, the Giants and Lions had multiple fights at their joint practices on Monday and Tuesday. That resulted in the NFL fining both teams $200,000 as the league is emphasizing having clean joint practices.

Last month, all teams were reminded in a memo that "fighting and unprofessional conduct at joint practices would not be tolerated."

"You know our rule here, we do our best not to punch," Saleh said. "I know we haven't been great at it here since yesterday, but that's the big rule, just don't punch. You're going to get into these shoving matches, but like I've told our guys, if you throw a punch, you're kicked out of a game, so don't do it in practice.

"You know, as a coach you always want your team playing with a little bit of edge. [Are the] fights a result of guys going too hard, or is it a result of guys playing cheap? And if the frustration is just because one guy is going so hard and you're getting your butt kicked, so you have this natural reaction to fight back and you start swinging, good, you probably needed that."

"Fights happen for many different reasons," Saleh continued, "but if it's because you're competing your tail off and your guys are just sick of competing because it's been 10 days or however long it's been and you're sick of seeing this big, ugly human in front of you and you're going back and forth battling every day, if that's the result of why there's a scuffle that's fine, that's really not a big deal to me."

Along with keeping the joint practices drama-free, the Jets also need to start seeing more from their offense.

Since the Jets put the pads on for the first time during training camp, their offense has been inconsistent. Outside of their July 31 practice in which Aaron Rodgers threw six red zone touchdown passes, the Jets have suffered from plenty of miscues and uneven performances.

During Tuesday's practice, Rodgers completed 9-of-16 passes, but he was sacked three times and dealt with a lot of pressure on passing downs. Considering the Jets' defense has been a top-five unit the last couple of seasons, it is no surprise the offense has had growing pains.

Also, Rodgers is returning after only playing four downs following a season-ending Achilles tear during last September's season opener. After going against their stout defense for two weeks, the Jets will now have an opportunity to compete against new coach Dan Quinn and a Commanders defense that finished last in both yards (388.5) and points allowed in 2023 (30.5).

"I think we've done a great job to this point," Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. "Obviously, the goal is to continue to get better. Guys are competing at a high-level day in and day out. And obviously, we have a great defense to challenge ourselves each and every day. Overall, I think we've done a lot of good things and a lot of progress and a lot of stuff to build off of."

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