Start writing the obituary for the 2020 Philadelphia Eagles right now; you may begin with this reportage from ESPN and who else but Adam Schefter: “Eagles starting left tackle Andre Dillard tore his biceps and likely will need season-ending surgery next week…”
Dillard reportedly “suffered the injury during one-on-one drills early in Thursday's practice”, of which NFLbets might note the karmic value of a team not cancelling practice along with at least nine other teams in the wake of the cowardly shooting of Jacob Blake.
Taking over for Dillard, according to ESPN, will be Jordan Mailata of Australia, whose first sport is rugby.
As much as we love the two-sport professional athlete, however, NFLbets knows wagers aren’t won on karma and novelty. The numbers say that the 2019 Eagles’ OL ranked no. 11 in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric, helping the perpetually disappointing, often mediocre offense to a 9-7 regular season record.
While Dillard only started four games in ’19, he was slated to start at the position, with longtime LT Jason Peters to move to guard on the reshuffled line; with this injury, NFLbets wouldn’t be surprised to see Peters back in his familiar role before very long. Making matters worse, RT Lane Johnson is practicing hurt as well.
The truth is that the Philadelphia Eagles have underwhelmed expectations since riding Nick Foles past the New England Patriots to a Super Bowl win three seasons ago: They’ve gone just 19-16 SU (16-19 ATS) in all games since then, and have managed a whopping 39 points combined in three playoff games. Among the 10 Eagles departures in free agency were the last remaining “skill players” from the Super Bowl-winning offense, further evidence of the continuing slow slide the franchise is currently on.
Combine this with what look to be improved teams in Washington and Dallas, and this Philadelphia team is starting to resemble a team of, what, 6-10 SU, maybe…?
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