Andre Dillard Could Start at LT on Monday Night

It was late in Thursday’s practice when Jordan Mailata had a teammate accidentally roll up on his leg while Mailata was blocking.

The Eagles’ left tackle continued to practice, but afterward, told trainers he had some pain his one of his knees.

The Eagles are calling the injury a knee sprain, but he was still being evaluated on Thursday as the team took the practice field.

If Mailata cannot play, Andre Dillard would be the next man up.

That means the former first-round draft pick could be the starting left tackle when the Eagles travel to Dallas to play the Cowboys in a primetime Monday night matchup.

Already, the Eagles will be breaking in a newcomer on the line with rookie Landon Dickerson expected to make his first start in an important NFC East matchup for the Eagles, who turn around on a short week and host the Kansas City Chiefs.

Dickerson will be stepping in for right guard Brandon Brooks, who suffered a pectoral strain in last week's loss against the San Francisco 49ers and was placed on Injured Reserve, with a timetable to return unknown.

Dillard lost the summer competition to start at left tackle after he suffered a knee sprain and missed a couple of weeks of training camp.

That injury helped pave the way for Mailata to be the starter. Of course, Mailata’s play did as well. He had clearly outperformed Dillard during the summer.

Just 24 hours before the Eagles opened their season in Atlanta, Mailata signed a contract extension that will keep him tied to the Eagled through 2025 that can be worth up to $80 million and guarantees him $40.85M.

“Andre obviously got injured during camp, so that kind of hurt him," offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland said last week. "He was doing well. I really mean that. He was doing well. I was very happy with some of the things that he was doing. Then he got hurt and it became like, oh man, here we go again."

It's here we go again for the Eagles' offensive line, too, just a season after injuries forced them to start an NFL-record 14 different offensive line groupings in 2020.