Philadelphia Eagles: Starting Jack Driscoll at tackle is confusing

Jack Driscoll could be the Philadelphia Eagles’ top interior reserve if they let him.

If there’s one position the Philadelphia Eagles are set at going into the 2020 NFL season, it’s offensive tackle.

I know, I know, the Eagles have a very good one-two punch at quarterback, the best tight end duo in the NFL, and solid depth at both wide receiver and running back – not to mention their supreme depth at slot cornerback, strong safety, and tackle on the defensive side of the ball – but really, their depth at offensive tackle is just different.

You want a pair of bonified starters? Andre Dillard and Lane Johnson are in place. A veteran All-Pro? Jason Peters can easily kick outside to play either tackle spot in a pinch. Heck, the Eagles even have a bevy of exciting young prospects on rookie contracts who could play the position in a pinch like Matt Pryor, Prince Tega Wanogho, and Jack Driscoll.

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Guard, on the other hand, is a whole. ‘notha. story.

With Brandon Brooks out for the 2020 season with a torn left Achilles tendon, the Eagles had to convince Peters to switch positions 17 seasons into his NFL career, all so they wouldn’t be forced to start a player like Pryor, Sua Opeta, Nate Herbig, or, Iowa State UDFA Julian Good-Jones; a quartet with 127 combined NFL snaps to their names.

You see what I mean?

So when the Driscoll graduate unofficially announced that he would be starting his NFL career out at tackle, it raised quite a few eyebrows around the Delaware Valley.

Now to be fair, Driscoll is an offensive tackle by trade. He exclusively played the position at Auburn and hasn’t lined up on the interior since his time at UMass back in 2017 – where he played two years before opting to transfer after failing to get into the school’s graduate business program (more on that here). Sure, he looks more like a guard – gym teacher actually – than a tackle, as he has short arms, an average physique, and only weighed in at 306 pounds at the 2020 NFL Combine, but clearly, the Eagles envisioned the 23-year-old as a swing tackle coming off the bench, with an ability to fill the massive – literally – shoes of now-Detroit Lions tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai.

In theory, that idea was solid, but as these things so often go in the fast-moving world of NFL team building, things don’t always work out as planned.

I mean really, who would have thought that Tega Wanogho, Driscoll’s Auburn Tigers teammate would be available in the sixth round, 10 picks after selecting Quez Watkins no less? Who then would have also predicted that Brooks would suffer an offseason injury while performing a conditioning exercise, only to have Peters make his triumphant return to play right guard for the first time since, well, ever? If you pulled off that prop bet, you really should be writing for the blog (apply here).

Sure, the Eagles could still find a role for Driscoll this season as a sixth offensive lineman coming off the bench, a role that everyone from Vaitai to Pryor and even Dillard has filled in recent memory, but are those few snaps per game really worth having insufficient depth on the interior? Wouldn’t you rather give that nod to PTW and give Driscoll some much-needed work at guard?

I mean this is a player who graduated college in three years and learned how to play center during the offseason for the heck of it. Driscoll is a smark cookie who would easily be the Eagles’ top interior option with enough work and dedicated practice time at the position.

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Could Jack Driscoll eventually get snaps on the interior at guard? More likely than not he will, but by beginning his career at his college position, the Philadelphia Eagles have once again highlighted their inflexibility when it comes to incorporating rookies into their scheme, a pesky habit that bit the team in the butt last fall with JJ Arcega-Whiteside. Hopefully Doug Pederson – and now Duce Staley – can learn from their mistakes before it sets their promising fourth-round pick too far behind the eight ball to contribute should disaster strike.

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