ClutchPoints
There’s no two ways about it, the Philadelphia Eagles have one of the most stacked teams in the NFL.
Sure, they lost multiple players over the course of the offseason, including Josh Sweat, Darius Slay, and Brandon Graham, but Howie Roseman has built an impressive farm system that has proven remarkably resilient, with young draftees routinely replacing aging starters after a year or two of seasoning.
But which players on the Eagles are underrated? Which players deserve the “underrated sleepers” tag on a team filled with household names?
Well, while the Eagles will largely live or die based on the strength of their top-line talent, these players have a chance to fill similarly important roles on the Eagles this fall, too, as they will all be competing for massive roles in the starting lineup.
Who will be the Eagles’ Week 1 starter at right guard? Well, based on how OTAs and minicamp have shaken out so far, it would appear third-year, third-round pick Tyler Steen has to be the favorite in the clubhouse.
Originally selected with the 65th overall pick out of Alabama, Steen transitioned from tackle to guard as a rookie and looked like a legitimate candidate to start during camp last season, only for Mekhi Becton to take his job due to injuries and a strong late push at the end of training camp. While Steen did still appear in all 17 regular season games for the Eagles, his PFF grade was among the worst marks of any offensive lineman in the NFL, with just two players falling below his 40.7 overall rating.
Unfortunately for Philadelphia, one of the players who snuck in below Steen was Kenyon Green, who was shipped to Philadelphia in the CJ Gardner-Johnson trade with the Houston Texans.
With two new draftees joining the team in Myles Hinton and Cameron Williams, the Eagles have plenty of options to take Becton’s spot, but one player who has largely been overlooked is another Philadelphia draftee from all the way back in 2018: Matt Pryor.
Originally drafted as a tackle out of TCU, Pryor transitioned to guard at the NFL level, where he has started all 39 of his NFL games. Bouncing around the NFL from Philly to Indianapolis, San Francisco, and finally Chicago last season, Pryor started 15 of the Bears’ 17 games last season, and was pretty good.
Taking the field for 1,004 offensive snaps, Pryor was a bright spot on an overall disappointing Bears offensive line, ranking 21st among all guards with a 69.9 offensive grade from PFF, with his run blocking grade coming in at 65.9 and his pass blocking grade, 78.1, the fifth best among all qualifying guards. Like Becton, Pryor is a 6-foot-7 monster in the trenches with the size of a tackle, and thus, could theoretically slide in and play a similar style of football should he rise from the second team to the first for one reason or another.
Will Pryor start for the Eagles...
