Which Eagles players saw their stock drop the most during training camp? | Early Birds

Good morning, Eagles fans. Happy Friday. I’m not sure if you’ve realized this yet, but yesterday was the final Thursday of the year without football scheduled. We’re officially less than 10 days away from the Eagles’ season opener, too.

In the meantime, the team is trimming the roster to 53. The deadline for roster cutdown is Saturday at 4 p.m., but the Eagles got started early, waiving 12 players Thursday evening.

While none of the players cut Thursday are completely out of the blue, the most surprising among them were Elijah Holyfield, Adrian Killins, and Deontay Burnett. All three had impressive moments in camp, and the Eagles are likely hoping all three make it through waivers and onto the practice squad. We’ll see how things shake out, but the team has three running backs on the roster. That’s a little thin, especially since Miles Sanders has missed most of training camp with a lower-body injury.

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In Wednesday’s newsletter, we went through the biggest winners of training camp, highlighted by Malik Jackson, Josh Sweat, JJ Arcega-Whiteside and John Hightower.

Now, let’s review the players whose stock dropped the most during the two weeks of practice open to the media.

Dillard would have made this list before it was announced he’d miss the season because of a biceps injury that will require surgery. The Eagles’ first-round pick in 2019 very clearly added muscle since last year — about 15 or 20 pounds, according to him — but he was still struggling with bull rushes during camp.

He surrendered a “sack” to Joe Ostman during a team drill in which Dillard fell into Carson Wentz’s legs. Wentz was unscathed on the play, but it was still one of the most notable moments of camp, and a bad look for Dillard. The second-year left tackle needed a promising camp to oust the worry about him stepping in for Jason Peters, but there were question marks lingering before his season-ending injury.

Now he’ll spend the season rehabbing for 2021. There’s a lot of time between then and now, but the team could have more competition for Dillard at left tackle next summer.

This training camp was pivotal for Jones. Entering his fourth season in the league, the cornerback hasn’t been able to stay healthy and prove he’s capable of realizing the upside the team saw when it took him in the second round of the 2017 draft. Jones went into camp with an outside chance at earning a starting cornerback spot and the presumption that he’d have at least one more season to reverse course. Now, he finds himself on the roster bubble, hoping his potential outweighs his production.

Jones missed more than half the team’s padded practices after suffering a lower-body injury in the first week of camp. He’s still too small to be a major special-teams contributor, and he didn’t get many reps in the Eagles defense to showcase any possible improvement to his play at corner. The Eagles will have to decide if the fleeting chance of Jones’ reviving his career is worth a roster spot.

Maybe it was an optimistic view coming into camp, but I thought Mailata had a chance to show he’d evolved from a project tackle into a viable backup option. He still might be the backup, but it’s clear now Matt Pryor is the team’s first option at left tackle if Jason Peters is to remain at right guard. Pryor has gotten the lion’s share of first-team snaps at the tackle position.

Mailata has gotten first-team reps at right tackle, but so has Jack Driscoll, a rookie fourth-round pick. Mailata shouldn’t be in jeopardy of making the team, but the Eagles would have benefitted mightily from his being further along in his progression from raw talent to trustworthy swing tackle. Especially considering the instability the team has with offensive-line depth right now.

Will our O-Line recover from all these injury’s? I feel like last year it was already so weak and we lost 2 huge players. — from Birdz Boy (@birdzboy) on Twitter.

Thanks for the question, Birdz. I think it’s important to acknowledge the Eagles still have two elite linemen up front, which is more than a lot of good teams can say. If Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce are in the lineup every week and playing at the level they’ve been at the last few years, I think the offensive line will still be a good group.

Offensive-line play in the league has been on steady decline as of late, the Eagles are still lucky to have proven entities at multiple spots. Peters, whether he’s at left tackle or right guard, should be a league-average starter, and Isaac Seumalo will be about the same. If Peters is at left tackle, Matt Pryor will be insulated by Johnson and Kelce. He’s a far cry from Brandon Brooks, but most teams deal with a weak link along the line.

The depth is a huge question mark, and the group is probably a Johnson injury away from a disaster up front, but it’s worth noting that most teams would be worse off than the Eagles if they lost two starters along the offensive line, especially a player like Brooks, who is one of the best at his position.