I recall Brees mentioning during the 09 season that talked about how on Friday's they scrimmaged hard. 1st team O vs 1st team D full speed.... Need to get back to that.
CBA pretty much eliminated that possibility. The one Brees helped negotiate, where he wanted an exemption from the franchise tag.... they made it to where there is like only 10 padded practices during the regular season. I don't know how much that changed since then. But there will be no hard scrimmages during the season.
Edit: Regular Season and Postseason Practices. During the regular season, padded practices for all players shall be limited to a total of fourteen, eleven of which must be held during the first eleven weeks of the regular season, and three of which must be held during the remaining six weeks of the regular season. Postseason: Teams can hold one padded practice per week, starting the week after their last regular season game.