With the Eagles dealing with a ton of injuries to members of their offensive line, they have had to make adjustments on the fly. At times, they have had to shuffle multiple players into and out of multiple positions within a given game. Now, it appears they will be employing their sixth different combination of starting offensive lineman in their seventh game.
In a move that we speculated was coming earlier this week, Sua Opeta will make his first career NFL start against the Giants on Thursday Night Football. Opeta is expected to start at left guard, with Nate Herbig moving from left guard over to right guard. The thinking behind this move is that Opeta is more comfortable while Herbig, who has started at both guard spots, has actually spent more time at right guard.
Last week, Jamon Brown started at right guard and was an absolute disaster. He was released earlier this week but was subsequently re-signed to the practice squad. In a bit of a surprise move, he is actually one of the players the Eagles promoted from the practice squad to the active roster for Thursday’s game.
Brown started for the Eagles in Week 6 in part because Matt Pryor, who had been filling in at right guard, was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and missed the game. Pryor was activated from that list earlier in the day on Thursday, but head coach Doug Pederson hinted earlier in the week that Pryor might not start because he has been unable to practice for a week.
Pryor could very well be active on Thursday, but the Eagles are going with Sua Opeta at LG and Nate Herbig at RG. For Carson Wentz’s sake, they are hoping that Opeta fares better than Brown did on Sunday.
