Andre Dillard Embraces a New Role
PHILADELPHIA - It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Andre Dillard, a player advertised as a natural pass protector so gifted the Eagles moved up in the 2019 NFL Draft to select him at No. 22 overall.
The plan was to seamlessly transition from Jason Peters to Dillard at left tackle.
There’s an old Yiddish saying translated to “Man plans and God laughs,” that could be applied here because the Eagles' plan didn’t quite work out, foiled, in a good way, by Jordan Mailata, who went from former rugby start and football novice to standout blind-side protector in four short years.
After a lopsided training-camp competition dominated by Mailata was ended by a sprained knee for Dillard, Philadelphia committed to the large, 6-8, 380-pound Aussie in the form of a four-year, $64 million contract extension with nearly $41M in guarantees on the eve of the season-opener in Atlanta.
Dillard, meanwhile, was relegated from the future to the game-day swing tackle, the last exit on the road to a new city and a second chance elsewhere.
“We both really battled our tails off for that [job] and just continued to push each other every single day,” Dillard said Thursday after practice when talking about how things unfolded this summer. “At the end of the day, that’s what it was all about. We had fun doing it, we made each other better.”
MORE: Mixed Results for Eagles' Alabama Duo, so Far - Sports ...
Dillard made the most of a trying personal situation by latching on to a Nick Sirianni TED Talk about embracing your role with the team.
“When I found out it was [Mailalta’s] job, I was like, ‘Well, OK,’ Coach is always talking about embracing your role on the team,” Dillard said. “‘Be a star in your role,’ he would always say. I just took that to heart.
“Once I figured out what my role was, I just went with it."
Life has a way of at least keeping a window cracked when a door gets shut and Mailata’s own knee sprain in practice leading up to Week 3 at Dallas gave Dillard an opportunity to get back on the field after a hellish 14 months which featured a torn biceps, a hand injury and then the knee sprain this summer.
The Eagles were blown out by the Cowboys but Dillard was one of the few bright spots, more than holding his own against the Dallas front.
ProFootballFocus.com graded Dillard as the second-best Eagles player on offense vs. the Cowboys behind center Jason Kelce and Dillard joined Mailata (No. 4) in PFF’s top-10 offensive tackles overall at No. 7 through three weeks.
MORE: Dallas Goedert, Jonathan Gannon Focus on Travis Kelce
“It was really nice to finally get back out there again after a couple of seasons. It felt freeing,” said Dillard. “It was good to be back out there. I think I held my own out there. I think I did pretty well. Obviously, it wasn’t what we wanted, and obviously, we’re going to regroup as a team and learn from our mistakes on that one, but I think I did alright.”
Playing time has given Dillard the opportunity to prove himself to others in what is an offensive line-deficient league.
“There’s a reason for everything,” Dillard said. “I always tell myself I’m on this team for a reason. I was drafted for a reason. Like I said before, I’m embracing my role and trying to be a star in my role. My role now is starting left tackle for this next game, and I just really put everything I have into fulfilling that to the best of my ability.
And if Dillard keeps playing as he did against the Cowboys he’ll have a future whether it’s here or in another NFL city,
“I really just think about what’s in front of me,” Dillard said when asked about his future. “Kansas City Chiefs. Embracing the role I’m in right now. I don’t think too much about [the future]. But I am just over-the-top happy for Jordan. He’s got an amazing story and he deserves all of it, so major props to him.”
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
