August 31, 2021
The Philadelphia Eagles announced on Tuesday morning that they traded offensive lineman Matt Pryor to the Indianapolis Colts. The Eagles will get a sixth-round pick in return from Indy, and they will send back a seventh-round pick. In chart form:
| Eagles get | Colts get |
| Sixth-round pick | Matt Pryor |
| Seventh-round pick |
Over the first two years of his career, Pryor mostly worked at RG and RT. He started two games for the Eagles in 2019, both against the Seahawks, at RG. He kicked out to RT in one of those Seahawks games after Andre Dillard had a nightmarish first half.
In 2020, Pryor had a weird year, in that he became way too important of a player for how good he is. Let's recap his 2020 season:
• During the 2020 offseason, after Brandon Brooks got hurt most penciled in Pryor as the new starter at RG, barring a roster addition.
• The Eagles signed Jason Peters to play RG. Pryor went back to the bench on the depth chart.
• Dillard, the presumed starter at LT, injured his biceps and his season was over. Jason Peters subsequently refused to move to LT to replace Dillard without a bump in pay. In the meantime, Pryor got the first crack at playing LT with the first team offense in practice.
• In a scrimmage setting during training camp at Lincoln Financial Field, Pryor got absolutely wrecked all day by Josh Sweat. It was essentially the “Winston Justice game” equivalent of a training camp practice. Peters must've watched that unfold like Mr. Burns finger-tenting and remarking "Ex-cel-lent."
• The Eagles eventually paid Peters, and he went back to LT. In Week 1, Nate Herbig started at RG, and Jack Driscoll started at RT. During the game, Driscoll got hurt, and Jordan Mailata, who is more comfortable at LT than he is at RT, filled in. Pryor, who is more comfortable at RT than he is at LT, stayed on the bench. In other words, Pryor was, at best, the tenth lineman in the pecking order. He got leapfrogged by Herbig, Driscoll, and Mailata.
• Ultimately, however, due to an absurd number of injuries along the offensive line, he played in 15 games in 2020, starting 10 (6 at RG, 4 at RT).
Pryor was highly likely to have been cut by the Eagles if he hadn't been traded. In that sense, any return at all is a win.
We have written far too much about this trade. Sorry.
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