Adrian Fedkiw
To say that the Philadelphia Eagles backups along the offensive line looked bad Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be an understatement.
Head coach Doug Pederson, however, isn’t concerned.
Q. Obviously Allen played at right tackle. Who are the other guys that you kind of foresee getting reps there with the possibility of T Lane Johnson being suspended?
Obviously, you got ‘Big V’ [T Halapoulivaati Vaitai] sitting right there. Of course, [T] Jason Peters [is] on the left side. [G/T] Matt Tobin can play both sides, and he played well the other night [with] limited reps.
Q. What do you like about Allen Barbre at right tackle?
He’s played there, number one – more left tackle than right, but he’s been there in the past. I love his athleticism. He’s a smart guy out there. Some of these next couple of days we’ve just got to keep getting him some reps and getting him caught up.
Q. What has Vaitai shown at the tackle position?
He’s one of the young guys we’re keeping our eye on. He’s doing a great job. He’s working hard. You know, just got to keep detailing his work. But he’s getting close. He’s pushing [T] Dennis [Kelly] and those guys to get some quality reps.
Q. The idea of Seumalo getting first-team reps, what went into that?
Yeah, it’s just the combination thing we’re trying this week. We’re just trying to see especially him next to [Jason] Kelce, next to [Jason] Peters; the communication there.
He’s really putting himself in a position to possibly play at that spot, if not rotate into that spot. So, it was good to see him get some reps not only today, but the next couple of days.
Q. If you book big picture, are you concerned about the offensive line at this point in the season?
You know what, I’m really not. I’m really not. I look back to our days in Kansas City. We had a lot of injuries there and we were moving guys around, and we had a young left tackle early on. We made it work.
I’m looking for five tough, dirty, nasty guys that want to go out and just play football. I don’t care which five it is, but we’re going to find the best five and the right five, and I feel like we’ve got them here on the team.
It’s obviously imperative that Philadelphia finds depth at offensive line with Lane Johnson’s 10-game suspension seemingly looming. The Eagles play the Steelers in Pittsburgh Thursday night in their next preseason game, let’s hope the offensive line looks a little bit better this time around.