Adrian Fedkiw
This shouldn’t be a surprise.
After allowing four of the six sacks to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, struggling to generate push in the running game through two weeks, Isaac Seumalo was replaced at left guard by Chance Warmack during the Philadelphia Eagles’ first-team offensive line reps on Wednesday.
This comes after head coach Doug Pederson said Seumalo has done an “outstanding job” during Monday’s press conference.
Isaac has done an outstanding job, really, in his short time to start last year, this year and the position versatility. So we’ll evaluate the whole thing. It’s not — again, it’s not just one guy. If you’re going to point the finger too, you can point it at me; I’m part of the pie, too. We’ll evaluate it and we’ll keep evaluating it.
Obviously Pederson wasn’t going to throw his second-year left guard under the bus, but it hasn’t been an encouraging start for last year’s third-round draft choice, especially after the team traded away Allen Barbre during the summer.
I believe this move was made in an attempt to get the run game and LeGarrette Blount going. The Eagles have struggled immensely generating push with the interior of their offensive line, but have found success running along the boundaries. They averaged 5.43 yards per carry on plays along the perimeter Sunday, but just 2.33 YPC on totes up the middle. Blount didn’t even get a carry.
Getting the tackles in space and Jason Kelce pulling along the perimeter is what the Eagles do best. Darren Sproles is the back who runs that play best, however, he’s 34 and can’t be seeing double-digit carries each week. Wendell Smallwood was supposed to be the outside runner, but he’s struggled through two games.
It’ll be a test for the interior Sunday when they match up against New York Giants defensive tackles Dalvin Tomlinson and Damon Harrison.