Philadelphia Eagles: Don’t let Andre Dillard’s camp fights fool you
Philadelphia Eagles first-round left tackle Andre Dillard has been getting under his teammate’s skin lately. Is this a good or a bad thing?
The last two days have been quite interesting for Philadelphia Eagles 2019 first-round pick, Andre Dillard. Less than a week removed from having a solid NFL debut in the first week of the preseason, Dillard felt himself getting into some hot water with the team.
On Monday, the Eagles took the field for what was expected to be a light 10-10-10 practice. While players always want to work hard, they typically don’t go one-hundred percent live in these types of practice drills. As a rookie trying to stand out, Dillard didn’t quite get the memo.
On one play, Dillard picked up the blitzing safety in Johnathan Cyprien and put the veteran on his back. That sparked some anger between the offense and the defense. Not too long after that situation, Dillard and third-year defensive end Derek Barnett had to be separated.
This time, the situation was a bit more serious. At the end of the day, though, it was just a typical training camp fight between two competitive teammates on a hot day. These situations happen, and there are no hard feelings involved — at least, most of the time there isn’t.
The following day, Dillard was looking to redeem himself on the final day of training camp. Within the first hour, another report came out stating that Dillard got into with yet another teammate on Tuesday. This time, it was rookie defensive end, Shareef Miller.
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While the situation didn’t escalate to the same heights as the first confrontation, many Eagles fans grew conflicted about Dillard’s actions in practice. On one side, many are excited to see their offensive lineman getting mean and engaging in fights. On the other hand, some fans are beginning to believe that Dillard’s fighting could be a problem in the future.
Don’t let the actions confuse you…
The city of Philadelphia doesn’t know much about Andre Dillard at this point since he just joined the team a few months ago. However, they should know that these training camp altercations are surely out of character for Dillard. And quite frankly, they’re not really his fault.
The first fight could be pinned on Dillard for trying too hard in a drill that was favored towards the defense. As he is a rookie, he hasn’t quite grasped the idea of taking it easy when necessary. Hence the reason why the rookie was feeling remorse post-practice on Monday as he got emotional when talking to Doug Pederson, Howie Roseman, and Derek Barnett.
Tuesday’s altercation sounded like Dillard’s fault since he was involved in one the previous day, but Shareef Miller played the antagonist by hitting Dillard in the head after the play. That’s when Jason Peters had to step up and be a leader by telling Miller, “we’re just playing football, man.”
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We know the saying “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” but that doesn’t really pertain to Dillard here. This is the same guy who’s personality came off as questionable on scouting sheets because he’s not mean enough — rather than him being too mean and wanting to fight often.
Dillard won’t be an issue in the locker room. And if anything, him getting into the heads of his opponents is a good thing for the Eagles. Not only is he doing a good job by frustrating his competition, but he could force some penalties by causing these ‘fights’ in a game scenario as well. At the end of the day, Dillard is just doing his job and he’s doing it well.