Eagles will stick with rookie tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai
Eagles rookie tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai was BAD in his debut.
Sunday was not a good day for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The offense was ineffective, the defense was exposed and just about every player looked out of sync. None more so than rookie tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who was completely dominated in his first career start against the Washington Redskins. Despite this awful outing, the Eagles plan to stick with Vaitai as their starting right tackle moving forward.
This isn’t exactly an ideal situation for the rookie out of TCU. Lane Johnson‘s suspension caused Vaitai to be thrown into the fire against a formidable Redskins front seven and, to be completely honest, he was manhandled.
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It’s fair to expect hiccups from a rookie making his first career start, but Vaitai, selected in the fifth round (164th overall), was simply dominated by Redskins pass rushers. Vaitai’s mediocre performance was largely responsible for the five sacks and 11 hits that quarterback Carson Wentz was forced to endure.
It’s pretty fair to assume that Vaitai will need to improve drastically if he plans to hold onto his job as the Eagles’ starting right tackle while Johnson is out. Before Johnson was officially suspended by the NFL, it was rumored that guard Allen Barbre could shift to right tackle to fill his shoes. The Eagles have not indicated whether or not they will consider doing this down the road, but it may just be a better option than sticking with Vaitai.
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