Should The Eagles Trade Andre Dillard?

There was an interesting report coming out of Philadelphia on Thursday morning. Teams around the league have called the Eagles to ask about third-year offensive tackle Andre Dillard’s availability in a trade, per The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane. 

To say things have not gone well for Dillard in Philadelphia would be an understatement. Dillard saw significant playing time in just five games as a rookie and failed to capture the form we saw from him at Washington State. It wasn’t the type of performance the Eagles were hoping for when they traded several picks in order to move up for Dillard in the 2019 NFL Draft. 2020 was supposed to represent a fresh start for Dillard, but disaster struck in late August in the form of a torn bicep. The injury would keep Dillard out of the entire season.

Dillard was supposed to compete for the starting gig at left tackle this season, but his chances of doing so suffered a significant blow when he left practice with a knee injury on Aug. 10, just two days before the Eagles’ first preseason game. After the pandemic robbed us of preseason games a year ago—Dillard theoretically could’ve played in a couple last season before his injury—the Eagles would have liked to see Dillard on the field as much as possible this month. After all, he only has 343 professional snaps under his belt. Add in the fact that the early reports out of training camp stated Dillard was being outperformed by former seventh-round pick Jordan Mailata, and this saga has all the makings of a disaster.

The Eagles enter the second of three preseason games without a good feel for Dillard’s form heading into the new season. He won’t play Thursday night and he is unlikely to play in the team’s final exhibition game either. This is a bad situation for a team trying to figure out what they have in a player they invested so much stock in just two years ago.

If the Eagles do trade Dillard, it’s unlikely they’d get anything that even resembles a decent return. A day-three pick, which is what Greg Little was traded for just a few days ago, would most likely be what’s on the table—which is nothing compared to what it took for Philadelphia to secure Dillard’s services in the first place.

The Eagles should hold onto their 25-year-old offensive tackle for now. Dillard’s trade value has never been lower than it is at this moment in time. There is really nothing to be gained by moving on from him at this point.