Andre Dillard's second NFL season is over.
The Eagles offensive tackle (and 2019 first-round draft pick) has suffered a biceps injury that will require season-ending surgery, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported Thursday.
Dillard suffered the injury during Thursday's practice, becoming the second Eagles starting lineman to go down with a significant injury before the start of the regular season. Pro Bowl guard Brandon Brooks suffered a torn Achilles in June.
Dillard's injury brings the Eagles to another significant fork in the road up front. Philadelphia re-signed longtime left tackle Jason Peters before the start of camp with the plan to insert him in place of Brooks, despite spending his career as a tackle. Without Dillard available to play left tackle, it's fair to wonder if Peters might end up heading back to the spot he manned in Philadelphia for 11 years.
That would, of course, create a void at right guard for the Eagles, meaning their current predicament might simply be a case of choosing at which spot they'd rather have less of a weakness. Dillard was very green in his first season, so much that he was replaced at one point by swing tackle Halipoulivaati Vaitai during the 2019 season (both in place of the injured Peters), so turning to developmental project Jordan Mailata or rookie Prince Tega Wanogho isn't completely unrealistic.
It would seem to be more reliable to move Peters back to left tackle, though, and instead insert either undrafted free agent Julian Good-Jones or fourth-round pick Jack Driscoll at right guard. Sua Opeta, a 2019 UDFA who is listed as Isaac Seumalo's backup at left guard, might also be an option.
None of this is ideal, but this is the reality teams tend to face when dealing with untimely and unfortunate injuries. We'll see how the Eagles respond.
