Inside NFL Training Camps: 12 Head Coaches Describe the Drills They Use to Build Culture

Training camp has a way of looking uniform from the outside. Fields, pads, whistles, and the same calendar of reps. But in a new FOX Sports feature, the emphasis shifts from the noise of practice to the intent behind it. The outlet asked Sean McVay, Mike Macdonald, Jim Harbaugh and 10 other head coaches to identify their favorite drills at camp, and to explain the stories behind those selections, framing drills as more than a way to cover fundamentals.

Across the coaches, the common through line is that a drill is a tool for repetition, tempo, and standards. FOX Sports describes the whistle as a key organizer in camp practices, helping keep sessions orderly and on time. Yet the feature’s central argument is that the whistle is not the culture. The culture comes from what coaches choose to repeat, how they sequence those repetitions, and what they demand from players when the session becomes uncomfortable.

From there, the drill becomes a stand-in for game habits. Even without naming every specific play or scheme element, the reported focus is clear: the coaches treat drills as the quickest path to installing decision-making under pressure, communication habits, and consistent effort. In that sense, the “favorite drill” is less a favorite football trick and more a practice mechanism that reinforces the team identity a coach wants players to carry into the season.

The feature also positions leadership as part of the practice design. It does not suggest culture is automatic or built only through a coach’s presence. Instead, it highlights how drill rules, coaching cues, and the way players are grouped and evaluated can teach accountability. If the camp environment is meant to accelerate growth, the drill is how the staff can measure effort and responses, and how players learn what kind of teammate the coach expects them to be.

Coaches often talk about training camp as a bridge between offseason work and the condensed reality of the regular season. In the FOX Sports piece, that bridge appears in a different light: the “go-to” drills are the repeatable structure that turns early practices into an on-field language. Whether the focus is on situational work, communication, or technique under time constraints, the drill selection is tied to what the staff wants the team to become when games matter.

What to watch next is how teams translate that camp approach into the preseason and then the regular season. If a coach’s favorite drill is about pace and decision-making, the practical test will be whether those same patterns show up when opponents start pressing, special teams rotations tighten, and snap counts compress. If the drill is built to reinforce discipline and communication, the test will be whether that discipline holds as practice intensity rises and roster churn adds new variables.

Because this report is a camp-facing feature rather than a single-team tactical breakdown, the biggest limitation is scope. FOX Sports is describing the idea and rationale behind the coaches’ picks, not publishing a complete play-by-play clinic for each drill. Still, the takeaway is concrete: in the NFL, culture is engineered through what gets practiced most, and why it gets practiced at all. That is the real “inside” story of training camp.