EAGAN, Minn.

After the coaching staffs for Jacksonville and Minnesota met the night before, a group of 12 trusted players from both the Jaguars and Vikings convened before the two teams took the field for their first joint practice.

The goal of the gatherings could be boiled down to this: No fighting.

Please.

“We really don’t want to end up being on TV like some of these other things,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “We just want to get out there and get some work done and try to get each of us better.”

There’s no reason for the Jaguars and Vikings, who only play each other in the regular season every fourth year, to bring any grudges to these dual individual drills and simulated game situations.

Jaguars coach Doug Marrone spent three years as an assistant coach with the New Orleans Saints, when Zimmer’s son and current Vikings linebackers coach Adam Zimmer was also on staff. Jaguars assistant offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr . is the son of the late Vikings offensive line coach, who died suddenly of heart disease right before training camp .

This was Marrone’s idea, proposed to Zimmer shortly after the exhibition game schedule was finalized in April with the Jaguars playing the Vikings on Saturday.

Zimmer acknowledged some hesitation, citing his preference to follow training camp routine, but he agreed to include his team in an exercise that has long been common around the league. The workouts at Minnesota’s gleaming new facility will feature two teams that reached the conference championship games in January.

The purpose is to break up the monotony of two-days and providing extra opportunities for evaluation of bottom-of-the-roster candidates. The Vikings joined the Bengals for practices two years ago in Cincinnati where Zimmer used to be the defensive coordinator, a trip that conveniently allowed him to stay at his ranch retreat in rural Kentucky.

The excitement and, thus, the intensity have ramped up for these sessions on Wednesday and today. That’s why the pre-practice conversations took place about keeping the competition healthy and respectful.

The first session on Wednesday came and went without any drama, as both sides intended.

Bucs and Titans

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota will be on the same practice field for a couple days, though their football careers will be forever linked.

They practiced on the same field Wednesday for one period as Winston’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers worked out with Mariota’s Tennessee Titans. There wasn’t time for any chit chat between them.

NFL fans know more than that. They are both quarterbacks. They are both Heisman Trophy winners, and they were the first players drafted in 2015.

The decision by Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter and first-year Titans coach Mike Vrabel for their teams to work out together before Saturday night’s preseason game brought back up the Winston-Mariota debate.

The two worked out together before the 2015 NFL draft out in California. Titans general manager Jon Robinson worked with Tampa Bay when the Buccaneers chose Winston as the No. 1 pick overall over Mariota. Now Robinson has Mariota as the first of those two quarterbacks not only to reach the playoffs but win a game once in the postseason.

The Bucs will be without Winston for the first three games this season as the quarterback sits out a suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The NFL announced the suspension in June after the league investigated an allegation

Winston groped a female Uber driver in Arizona in March 2016.

That’s why Ryan Fitzpatrick started the Bucs’ exhibition opener, a 26-24 win over Miami, and Winston worked with the second team. Koetter said Fitzpatrick got the majority of the work with the Bucs’ first-team offense when they worked on a separate field against the Titans’ defense.

Winston and Mariota will practice against each other again Thursday in the second of joint practices between the Bucs (1-0) and Titans (0-1). Then Fitzpatrick is expected to start again Saturday night.

Not only does Mariota have the edge over Winston in the NFL with a playoff victory, he also has two very big wins. Mariota and Oregon routed Winston and Florida State 59-20 in the College Football Playoff semifinal in January 2015 . Mariota also is 1-0 against Winston and the Bucs with a 42-14 win in the quarterbacks’ NFL debut in 2015.

The 2014 Heisman Trophy winner said he’s never really been concerned with being linked to Winston during the pre-draft process or since. Mariota knows who he is and focuses on trying to improve himself.

“It’s always kind of interesting our paths cross again,” Mariota said. “But it is good to see him, and hopefully we’ll just continue to find ways to get better and look back on it and just kind of laugh about it.”

Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Von Miller is preparing to make his preseason debut this weekend against the Chicago Bears.

Of course, the star linebacker was all set to play last weekend against Minnesota when he said “the call came from upstairs” that he’d be held out.

Coach Vance Joseph had insisted all week that Miller would play in the preseason opener, explaining, “he’s had a great camp and we have no reason not to play Von. Von is in good health and good spirits, so why not?”

Because he could get hurt in a meaningless game and put a damper on their 2018 season, which apparently was the reason general manager John Elway nixed the notion of Miller playing against the Vikings.

So, Miller was helpless to keep Kirk Cousins from driving 75 yards for an opening touchdown in the Vikings’ 42-28 win .

After the game, Joseph said, “Obviously, Von is valuable to our football team. He’s a guy who we can’t lose, so we didn’t play him, simple as that.”

Because the call was made so late, Miller was already taped up and didn’t get a chance to work out with strength coach Loren Landow before the game like other players who weren’t going to play.

“I wouldn’t say that I was upset. I was just ready to play,” Miller said Wednesday after the Bears-Broncos joint practice . “I hadn’t played since the Pro Bowl. … So, I was pretty excited to play. I was ready to go out there with my brothers.”

Miller said he was pumping up first-round draft pick Bradley Chubb and other rookies only to learn he would be rooting them on instead of leading the way.

“Me and Chubb, we talked about sacks before the game,” Miller said. “With the rookies, it’s a hard deal to get the rookies right. So, I was getting Chubb right and the other guys right and I’m getting ready to go out there on the field and they said I wasn’t going to play.”

Defensive coordinator Joe Woods said he expects Miller to play Saturday night, but when asked what he thought, Miller said, “I don’t know.”

Either way, it won’t change his preparation.

“I just approach it the same way every week,” Miller said. “I just go into it like I’m going to play.”

The Broncos usually throttle back Miller in practice because, in the words of his coach, he can “wreck practice” he’s so good.

That’s not a concern when he’s facing another team like the Bears, though.

“No, I’m definitely trying to wreck it,” Miller said with a laugh.

Bears coach Matt Nagy said facing Miller for two days of joint practices — and maybe again Saturday night — can only help his young team.

“What a great challenge for our offensive linemen, to be tested by some of the best in the league,” Nagy said.

Unlike past years when the Broncos got into scuffles during joint practices, things didn’t get too chippy with the Bears.

“We just want to come out here and get better,” Miller said. “Both organizations, we didn’t have the type of season that we (wanted to) last year. So, I think coming out here and fighting each other and making it into a Battle Royale is the last thing on both teams’ minds.”