Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Pryor engagement at tackle not working out
PHILADELPHIA » Each day is an adventure for Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, who on Tuesday still was without injured franchise quarterback Carson Wentz and a legitimate left tackle.
The biggest issue facing Pederson is at tackle, not quarterback, as Wentz has been shutdown to keep him fresh for the opener. Officially Wentz has sat out two straight practices with a lower-body issue. Unofficially the Eagles don’t want him to get slammed in the pocket as he was last week when then-left tackle Andre Dillard awkwardly cut and tripped him after losing a bull-rush.
“Obviously what Carson is working through right now is nothing major,” Pederson said. “It’s minor. It’s day-to-day. This is actually a good time for this week, to rest. As you know if we played a preseason game on Thursday he wouldn’t play anyway. All the backups would go. This is really a good time for him to really rest, for the majority of our starters, to kind of rest and prepare themselves for next week.
“I have no issues of where Carson is, where he’s headed. He’ll be ready to go.”
The way Pederson spun it, the Eagles want to open the season in two weekends at Washington with a new left tackle. Pederson and offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland still are determining whether Matt Pryor will be that guy or, if he fails, who gets to ask Jason Peters, now the right guard, to do them a big favor and take one for the team.
Pederson got snarky when asked to validate reports that Peters would need to get a pay raise to move back to tackle. Peters signed a one-year contract worth $3 million. Last year he made $6 million playing tackle. If Peters won’t accommodate the Eagles without a bump in pay, would Pederson feel his authority had been undermined?
“I don’t understand where some of these reports are coming from,” Pederson said. “Jason Peters for us has done an outstanding job at right guard. We have some options at left tackle that we’re working through over there. It doesn’t undermine anything. The fact is that Jason has really embraced a new role for him, he’s done it well. He’s playing at a high level in what we’ve asked him to do there and he’s comfortable.
“As you guys know it’s hard to disrupt too many positions with that offensive line. We’ve got a few more days here before we really get into regular season week to find out who that left tackle will be. But we’ve got some options over there.”
It’s Pryor’s job to lose. With one career start (at right guard), he hasn’t inspired confidence in camp although, in fairness, he’s played three of the five positions up front.
Jordan Mailata, the Australian former rugby player, also will get work at left tackle as well as on the right side. The emergency plan is rookie Jack Driscoll, who played right tackle at Auburn.
None of the three have gotten the job done against the first-team defense in camp. On Sunday, backup defensive end Josh Sweat was killing it against Pryor.
“I don’t make too much of it,” Pederson said. “Pryor has been working right guard and right tackle. I believe this might have been the first time he’s really had extensive left tackle work without any preparation or practice time. It’s a great example of why you just don’t move guys around at the spur of the moment. Matt Pryor is a guy that, once he gets all the work during the week, is a solid guard or tackle. He’s proven that in the past for us. He’ll settle in over there at the left side, and we’ll be fine.”
Why Pederson is so adamant about keeping a career left tackle at right guard and playing a right guard/tackle at left tackle was called into question.
“He’s solidified that right guard,” Pederson said of Peters. “He’s worked well with Lane (Johnson) when Lane has been out there. He’s working great with Jason Kelce. Kelce has a comfort level there with him. The thing is if we end up moving too many spots, especially this late into camp, it can disrupt some timing up front. Those guys need to be in sync.
“For us to go out and put our best five up there, that’s the plan, that’s where we’re going, that’s where we’re headed. We’re going to get them all ready to play.”
••• Brandon Graham can spot a phony a mile away.
Graham will make an exception for fake crowd noise, though, because it beats the alternative of no noise with few if any fans in the seats during to the coronavirus pandemic.
After speaking with Eagles teammates, Graham concluded the bogus fan noise that spewed over the speakers at otherwise empty Lincoln Financial Field during Sunday’s scrimmage livened up the place. The noise was a test run for the home opener in three weekends.
“It doesn’t sound any different, other than you can’t see anybody,” Graham said Tuesday. “It made me feel like I was in a game.”
Rookie wide receiver John Hightower, who played in front of sellouts at notoriously loud Boise State, offered a similar perspective.
“If you were to close your eyes and just listen to the noise, you would think there’s fans in the stadium,” Hightower said. “But being out there and seeing there’s no fans, you know it’s fake.
But I guess it was good to have crowd noise so there wasn’t complete silence.”
The Eagles are working on the emptiness issue for the 69,000-seat stadium by selling cutouts with images of fans like MLB has. Owner Jeffrey Lurie is confident the Eagles eventually will play in front of limited crowds at the Linc this season, a downturn in the COVID-19 infection rate notwithstanding.
••• Eagles rookie wide receiver Jalen Reagor is weekto-week with a shoulder injury, meaning he could miss the opener at Washington.
The last thing the Eagles
need to do is rush Reagor back. With speed, solid hands and fearlessness over the middle, he’s everything the Eagles wanted and more.
“We knew as a receiver what he could do,” Pederson said. “He came in and, gosh, he wants to learn. He’s a sponge. He’s learning from Alshon (Jeffery), from DeSean (Jackson), he’s learning from Carson (Wentz). I’m excited to see obviously this year when we get him back, then obviously the remainder of this year and see how his career really unfolds working with Carson down the road.”