As reported on Thursday afternoon, Andre Dillard has torn his bicep, which will sideline the offensive tackle for the season. So now it's time to find out who is going to take over Dillard’s spot.
Jordan Mailata had been filling in for Dillard earlier in the week, and he had reportedly looked fine during those reps. He picked up a defensive line stunt done with defensive tackles Malik Jackson and Josh Sweat, neutralizing their pass rush on that specific snap. He had done a great job blocking Sweat, and when he was beat a couple of times, he still pushed his man up the field so Carson Wentz could avoid being sacked. Mailata also played a couple of reps at right tackle with the second team, a sign the Eagles may be seeing if he can become a swing tackle.
There is also a chance that the Eagles will surprise us all by just signing a left tackle via free agency. With only a couple weeks left before the regular season, the hope would be that the free agent pick-up would be prepared enough to protect Wentz's blindside Week 1.
However, the most obvious answer is Jason Peters, who has been playing at right guard in training camp to fill in for Brandon Brooks, who is out for the season with an achilles injury.
Peters has spent 15 years at the left tackle position, so there should be no issue with him switching positions to go back to his natural side of the offensive line. It’s been surprising to see Peters continue to block at a competitive level despite his age, but that soon might be on the decline. It would be interesting to see if the Eagles rely on Jason Peters or do they finally break away from their experiment and possibly switch off between him and Jordan Mailata. But with Peters likely at LT, Matt Pryor will take over at right guard.
So right now I imagine the line would look like this: LT Jason Peters, LG-Isaac Seumalo, C-Jason Kelce, RG-Matt Pryor, and RT-Lane Johnson. With two offensive linemen out for the season, it’ll be interesting to see how the Eagles o-line pans out and how they’ll perform without two of their key players. Oh, 2020... you just keep getting better and better.
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