OWINGS MILLS, M.d. (DC News Now) – The Washington Commanders are making the field trip to the Baltimore Ravens training facility for a few joint practices ahead of their preseason game against one another on Monday.

The Commanders have not held a joint practice with another team in five years, the last time was with the New York Jets and they held another in 2015 with the Houston Texans. In both instances, fights broke out between the teams.

Fast forward to 2023 now, it’s day one of joint practice between the Commanders and Ravens, and things are already getting chippy.

When the teams went up against each other, a few scuffles broke out between the two practice fields.

On one field, Commanders’ rookie cornerback Emmanuel Forbes and Ravens wide receiver Tylan Wallace had a heated exchange where a little pushing was involved, which led to the sidelines emptying before both sides were separated.

Moments later on that same practice field, Ravens tight end Mark Andrews body-slammed Commanders’ cornerback Danny Johnson, and things re-escalated. The teams were separated, addressed by coaches, and then practice resumed.

Meanwhile, on the other practice field, Ravens safety Ar’Darius Washington had a big hit on Commanders tight end, Cole Turner, after a pass route. Turner dropped the ball as a result, but Washington continued to drive on Turner, shoving him out of bounds. The Commanders sideline did not like that and began to chirp back, which led to pushing and shoving. Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and head coach Ron Rivera separated the sides, while some Ravens players helped defuse the situation as well.

After practice, Rivera expressed how showing up to compete is important, but both teams need to be smarter about avoiding any potential injuries.

“What we’re trying not to have is a big melee that we can’t get stopped. That would not make sense, and that would be inexcusable. We’re trying to temper it and we’re just trying to make sure we constantly remind our guys that, ‘Hey, this is about practicing. This is nothing personal.'”

The Commanders and Ravens have two more joint practices together this week, despite the small scuffles that took place on day one, defensive lineman Daron Payne says that tomorrow is a new day.

“We just look at it as another practice, man. We got some things that we did good and some things that we can work on, but I feel like everybody just came out here with the right mindset and just go try to work harder tomorrow and do some things better tomorrow.”