When Eagles left guard Landon Dickerson had to leave a couple games with injuries earlier in the year, Sua Opeta was the guy who replaced him.
Opeta played 11 snaps in place of Dickerson in the first Commanders game, 47 at left guard in the Arizona game, three against Dallas. He's a solid guy who's started five games over the last couple years.
The last four games, Opeta has been inactive, and nobody knew exactly what the plan was at left guard if Dickerson got banged up again.
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Sunday we found out.
It was only four snaps, but we got our first look ever at Andre Dillard at guard in a high-leverage situation.
Dillard had played seven snaps at left guard with the other backups at the end of the blowout win over the Steelers, but this was the real deal.
Second half of a back-and-forth game that the Eagles really needed to win.
NFL
“With Andre getting some reps there at guard, it's really important to have that flexibility,” Nick Sirianni said Monday. “The more positions he can play the better.”
Having Dillard able to back up at left guard gives the Eagles more flexibility on the game-day roster.
Instead of keeping nine offensive linemen active, which they did a few times earlier in the year, they can now keep eight and still have every position covered with Jack Driscoll backing up right guard and right tackle, Cam Jurgens center and Dillard left tackle and left guard.
“We have a lot of the d-linemen that are up,” Sirianni said. “And so when you have that much depth at d-line -- and we love to play (a lot of ) guys at d-line -- obviously you're not going to be able to have everybody up in other spots.
“With our situation at offensive line, we've had eight up (recently). As you know this year, a couple times we've had nine up. But right now it's been eight, and it's important that those guys are cross-trained well to be able to handle, not only the left side but the right side and not only tackle but guard.”
When the Eagles selected Dillard with the 19th pick in the 2019 draft, playing guard was the farthest thing from anybody’s mind. He was going to be the Eagles’ left tackle for the next decade.
But injuries sidelined Dillard, Jordan Mailata came out of nowhere to take ownership of the left tackle spot, and Dillard has spent the last four years in limbo.
But he’s played well when pressed into action – he started five games last year – and you have to give him credit for learning guard, a position he had never played.
“Andre has just done a nice job in practice of getting himself ready to (play guard),” Sirianni said. “Obviously, Coach Stout (Jeff Stoutland) does an unbelievable job of cross-training him and getting him ready through the gauntlet that is called a coach Stoutland position meeting. You have got to be ready at all levels for every question. Mentally you are going to have to be on it, and then being on the practice field physically being on it.
“I can't tell you how much respect I have for coach Stout and how he gets these guys ready, but then also Andre for getting himself ready to do this. So hats off to both of them to be ready to go. We have a lot of faith in Andre to play tackle and to play guard, as you saw yesterday when we put him in there at guard.”
Dillard, 27, will be a free agent this offseason, and the versatility he's showing now will make him more valuable on the open market.
The Eagles would love to have him back as a reserve, but Dillard should draw significant interest on the free agent market. A former 1st-round pick who’s played well as a backup, can play inside or outside and is a high-character guy?
Most likely, Dillard will finally get a chance in Year 5 to be a full-time starter with another team and maybe even at another position.