The Eagles are now facing the tough task of having to replace Brandon Brooks, who suffered a torn Achilles this week, for the entire 2020 season.
A former Eagles' All-Pro offensive linemen believes the answer is already on the roster.
Speaking Tuesday afternoon to Jon Marks and Ike Reese on SportsRadio94WIP, former Eagles offensive tackle Tra Thomas said he believes Matt Pryor is ready to step in and start in place of Brooks.
"You do have the next man up right there. He might not have a lot of film, but check out those clips I posted of Matt Pryor," Thomas said. "For someone that came out and only played two games, he had a hell of a showing. I think I saw enough out of him that I would feel somewhat comfortable with him out there."
The Eagles also seem to have plenty of faith in Pryor, as they have trained him at guard and tackle last season, then started him in the team's playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks in place of an injured Brooks. The 2018 sixth-round pick has some obvious advantages to end up being the top replacement, as he has been in the building the last two seasons, knows the offense and is familiar with the other offensive linemen.
Thomas also seemed to think Pryor could be more than just a replacement-level player.
"My first tip out of the gate would be you have to finish every time. As an old player you are like 'man, whatever', sometimes you just want to cool out. But to me, if he just had that little extra dog in him, my god he could be nasty. He is extremely aggressive, he has a good understanding of when he shoot his hands, the timing of it and he understands how to set based off of how the defensive tackle is is attacking him. So you don't see him overset a lot of times. It is always a nice little short two-step kick and he is shooting hands. Sometimes you look over at Isaac (Seumalo) at times and he is set back and setting like a center, his hands are wide, he is all out of sorts and he gets bull-rushed a lot. You did not see that when you watch Matt Pryor."
You can check out Thomas' breakdown of Pryor below, as well as listen to him explain why he doesn't believe Jason Peters is an option to replace Brooks at right guard:
Pryor breakdown:
Full Interview:
