The Philadelphia Eagles are cruising through training camp and were able to open their preseason with a 34-27 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. While the Eagles came out on top, there were several players that struggled on Thursday night, giving Philadelphia some things to clean up ahead of their season opener against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 4.
One of those players has been a feel-good story during the opening weeks of camp. But his performance on Thursday night suggests he may not be worthy of an NFL roster spot.
Eagles OT Laekin Vakalahi Needs to Rebound From Rough First Preseason Game
Laekin Vakalahi is on the Eagles roster as part of the NFL’s International Pathway Program. According to the team’s official website, the New Zealand native never thought about playing football before he was scouted by international scout Chris Naeole. His previous experience to the game came playing free trials of Madden on XBox and he became a target of the Eagles when a friend of Naeole’s had a conversation with Vakalahi’s father on vacation in Hawaii.
After completing a two-year mission service with his church, Vakalahi had a workout scheduled with the Eagles and signed with the team as part of the International Pathway Program. The program provides teams with roster flexibility for players who didn’t take the traditional route of playing college football and was a member of the team’s practice squad during their run to the Super Bowl.
While Vakalahi has a cool journey to the NFL, he may have reached his ceiling according to how he played in his 12 snaps against Cincinnati. In his 12 snaps on Thursday night, he allowed a quarterback pressure and posted an 8.8 grade on three pass-blocking snaps. He didn’t fare much better in the running game, posting a 34.6 grade in nine snaps. Overall, Vakalahi has the lowest grade of any offensive tackle this preseason at 28.1 and may have already dug himself a hole in his quest to make the active roster.
It was a bit of a disappointment after Vakalahi posted an overall grade of 45.3 and a run blocking grade of 60.0 on eight snaps last preseason. Neither is a big enough sample size to pass judgement on the 22-year-old but the Eagles aren’t counting on him to seize a major role.
With Vakalahi not counting against the Eagles’ roster, it would be easy to stash him on the practice squad for another season and hope for better results. But there doesn’t appear to be a big leap from his first year in football and it could be detrimental to his active roster hopes going forward.