Andre Dillard will start at LT for the Eagles in place of Jordan Mailata vs. Dallas

Andre Dillard will start at left tackle for the Eagles in place of Jordan Mailata vs. Dallas Cowboys

The demise of Andre Dillard has been greatly exaggerated and with Jordan Mailata dealing with a knee injury, the former first-round pick will start at left tackle in his place.

Mailata was injured in Thursday’s practice at the NovaCare Complex when a player rolled up on his leg.

Head Coach Nick Sirianni said he didn’t anticipate that Mailata would be out for an extended period of time, and added that he has confidence that Dillard, who took the first-team reps in practice on Friday and Saturday.

“I’ve seen him have confidence. I’ve seen him be able to shut the pass rush down in our practices. We gave him a couple of different looks of different scout-team players to go against and I feel really confident in Andre and he should feel confident in himself,” Sirianni said. “Since I’ve gotten here – I can’t say what happened in the past here – since I’ve gotten here I’ve had complete confidence in him. I know he had that injury (knee) that set him back a little bit in Training Camp, but I’ve had complete confidence in him ever since I got here. Then he got that that Jets game (preseason finale) and the Jets practices and the New England practices and I just think he’s looked really good.

The head coach also added that the changes upfront won’t impact the game plan.

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