Missing Minicamp: Andre Dillard

All eyes are on Andre Dillard when it comes to the Eagles and the offensive line.

Professional football is often talked about as a true meritocracy.

The sentiment is only partially true, however, and there is plenty of context to the idea. Pedigree is a big part of that context, a designation that comes with the benefit of the doubt.

Take Chicago for example where the Bears eschewed higher-profile options at quarterback like Cam Newton and Jameis Winston to push Mitchell Trubisky in favor of our old friend Nick Foles.

The reason?

As a former No. 2 overall pick Bears, GM Ryan Pace wants Trubisky to succeed and is giving up the last slack he has on the rope to make the original decision to draft Trubisky over both Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes look at least a little better.

By bringing in Newton the death knell would have already been sounded and, revisionist history or not, Pace will be forever married to the bust that could have been Mahomes.

Circle back to Philadelphia and there is still plenty of rope to give Dillard, who was not only the 22nd overall pick in the 2019 draft, Howie Roseman went up to get him. That’s not only an endorsement of the player that’s an extra stamp of approval.

That said, even at 37, it was clear that Jason Peters was still a better left tackle than a rookie Dillard in 2019 but pre-COVID the Eagles made the difficult decision to turn the page on what is going to be a future Hall of Fame player in Peters. The sentiment branches across all sports - it’s better to give up on a player a year early than a year late.

The pandemic, along with Peters’ desire to stay in Philadelphia and Brandon Brooks’ season-ending Achilles’ injury, has changed the landscape in the offensive line room and given the Eagles pause.

Come July 28 it wouldn’t surprise anyone if big No. 71 rolled into South Philadelphia for another run and if that’s the case, Peters, now 38, is playing left tackle and the dominos would fall from there. Perhaps a Dillard move inside to left guard and the versatile Isaac Seumalo flipping over to replace Brooks.

Much of the uncertainty surrounding Dillard on the field at LT is based on his inability to handle the bullrushes of star edge players like Eversen Griffen and Robert Quinn as a rookie and he’s hardly the first star college offensive lineman to have to add strength to deal with the “grown men” of the NFL.

Everyone understood what needed to be done and the Eagles strength and conditioning staff were planning on working closely with Dillard in the offseason to make sure he was doing the right things in the weight room.

Like everyone else, however, Dillard was left to his own devices in a COVID world.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing and there have been positive signs, most notably from Brooks on NBC Sports Philadelphia earlier this month.

According to the powerful 340-pound Brooks, Dillard is up to 335 pounds himself and the weight is in all the right places.

“None of that college body, that noodle body, none of that,” Brooks joked. “He’s been hitting the weights, man, getting strong. I tried to push him every day. You know how it is playing O-line, there’s no excuses, you gotta get it done.”

Brooks is regarded as one of the strongest O-Linemen in the NFL and understands what it takes to excel in the league as a three-time Pro Bowl selection.

“Every time I see him, I’m going to push him to make sure. He may never be JP, but s@#$ he’ll be close,” Brooks said. I can tell you that as long as we keep progressing the way he’s going. He’s really hitting it hard.”

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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