It’s a good thing the Eagles still have Jason Peters. Because they’re going to need him.
Andre Dillard suffered a biceps injury at practice on Thursday and the left tackle will reportedly miss the entire 2020 season, NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark confirmed:
Just like Brandon Brooks, who tore his Achilles, Dillard will need surgery and will miss the entire year. The Eagles haven’t even played a game yet in 2020 and they’ve already lost two out of five starters on the OL.
Dillard, 24, just recently returned to practice from that shoulder injury. He also missed reps earlier in training camp after a minor injury that he was working to overcome.
At least the Eagles have a pretty obvious backup plan. While the Birds brought Jason Peters back to play right guard for Brooks, Peters should be able to slide back to left tackle with no problem.
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Peters, 38, has been working as the starting right guard all training camp but he put together a 15-year, Hall of Fame career playing left tackle.
With Peters at LT, it’s likely Matt Pryor will replace him at right guard. Pryor would have been the right guard if the team didn’t re-sign Peters. But Lane Johnson has also missed the past few practices with a lower body injury. Pryor has been working at right tackle in his place recently.
This is the likely new line (from left to right): Jason Peters, Isaac Seumalo, Jason Kelce, Matt Pryor, Lane Johnson.
This also means the top backups at tackle are now Jordan Mailata and rookie Jack Driscoll.
It’s an absolute shame for the Eagles to lose Dillard already, though. The 2019 1st-round pick put on a ton of bulk in the offseason and really wanted to add more functional strength. He was athletic last year but wasn’t able to handle power rush moves from defensive linemen.
Even with that added muscle, Dillard got bullied during Wednesday’s practice when 259-pound Joe Ostman used a power move on him to push him back into Carson Wentz. Wentz was hit in the lower leg area but was able to return to practice and appeared to be fine.
Still, the Eagles drafted him to be Peters’ replacement and he seemed like he was ready to take ownership of that job.
Aside from that bad rep on Wednesday, Dillard seemed pretty solid during training camp practices. We’ll have to wait for Year 3 to see if he can take ownership of that job.
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Eagles might need Jason Peters at left tackle even earlier than we thought originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
