Missing Minicamp: Matt Pryor

After getting a very small taste of his first playing time last year, Pryor could be in line for more, if he can overcome the lack of on-field work this past spring

More than one veteran coach has grumbled over the years about what offseason work really means.

After all, you can’t really evaluate players in a contact sport without any contact. Some positions are a little bit easier to get a beat on, however, but the offensive line is typically not one of them.

In recent years, that hasn’t been much of an issue for the Eagles with four stalwarts always ready to go in Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks, and Jason Peters.

A sea change is ongoing, however, partly planned and part attrition with second-year player Andre Dillard penciled in to replace the 38-year-old Peters at left tackle and Matt Pryor now given the leg up at right guard after Brooks’ Achilles’ tear earlier this month.

From Jeff Stoutland’s perspective, it would have been nice to get a look at the two young players on-field in June. Instead, it’s been trying to avoid “Zoom fatigue” as Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale described it.

At 6-foot-7 and 330 pounds, Pryor offers some of the same size Brooks brings to the lineup, but if you circle back to last season when Brooks had an anxiety relapse, the first card pulled by Doug Pederson and Stoutland was the versatile Halapoulivaati Vaitai, now a projected starter in Detroit after signing a big-money deal there in free agency.

Only when the deck continued to be shuffled did Pryor, a sixth-round pick out of TCU in 2018, get an opportunity with his first career start coming in the playoffs against Seattle at RG when Brooks was out with a dislocated shoulder.

The results were good enough to put Pryor into the conversation, first as a potential replacement for Vaitai as the backup who could slide inside and outside, and now the first man up as the 2020 stand-in for Brooks, the three-time Pro Bowl selection with a recently torn Achilles.

“I felt it kind of helped me escalate my game," Pryor told the Eagles official website when talking about his trial by fire in January. "Of course in practice, you're going against some of the greatest D-linemen in the league … and after a while in practice you kind of get a feel for what you're doing so you can go into a game and take what you learned in practice from being on the 'look' (scout) team and try to get your bearings.”

Even before the Brooks injury, Johnson saw a different Pryor when the two were working out together at the former’s Texas home.

“He's definitely taking it a lot more seriously," Johnson told the Eagles Eye in the Sky podcast. "I think (Pryor) knows his role; he could be a starter. When he got to play last year, he did very well in games. Really, when you look at him, he's 6-8.

"I always joke with him, call him Treebeard from Lord of the Rings, the walking trees, that's just how big this guy is, that's how much room he takes up, how massive he is.”

That massive frame would seem to project better outside at OT and perhaps if the Eagles didn’t have a 6-5 quarterback it would make things a bit difficult with an NBA power forward-sized player mucking up the throwing lanes, perhaps something to think about if Jalen Hurts is forced to play.

For now, though, it’s about getting the best players in the field and Johnson sees something in Pryor.

"He's so big and when he lands his hands, he's got very strong hands, he can do a lot of damage," said Johnson. "As far as the skillset, it's there. It's just getting experience and staying consistent, just like everything else."

Uncertainty remains and only became muddier with no "grass time," as Pederson likes to say, in the spring. The push back means Pryor will likely get the first opportunity at training camp barring a late veteran addition.

"I think 32 teams are probably sitting here today going, 'Wow, I wish we had OTAs.'" said Pederson. "I wish we had a chance to evaluate some of our draft picks and some of our free agents, new to the team.

"I don't want to call it a setback, but at the same time, we do have some young players that played for us last year that are going to have to take a big step forward.”

Pryor is one of those players and Pederson admitted the sense of urgency will be ramped up quickly the minute players arrive.

"Pryor, he played last year at the end of the season," said the coach. "(Nate) Herbig got in a game there at the end of the year. And these guys have to understand that there's a little bit of a sense of urgency once we get into training camp.

“Things are going to move fast. Things are going to move fast and we as coaches need to evaluate these players. I have to put them in position to be successful to show what they can do and that's everything that we are in the process of doing right now leading up to camp."

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen