Winston Justice didn’t start another game for two years. Halapoulivaati Vaitai starts again in six days.
Back in 2007, Justice — then a rookie second-round pick — made a spot start against the Giants at left tackle in place of Tra Thomas with disastrous results: Giants pass rusher Osi Umenyiora recorded six of the Giants’ NFL-record tying 12 sacks in a 16-3 Giants win in East Rutherford.
Vaitai wasn’t quite that bad Sunday against the Redskins, but he was overmatched enough that it was hard not to think about Justice that Sunday night at the Meadowlands.
Thomas returned after one week, and Justice didn’t start again until 2009, and by then he was ready for it.
But Lane Johnson isn’t back for nine more weeks, and head coach Doug Pederson said Monday Vaitai will be back at right tackle Sunday, when the Eagles face the undefeated Vikings at the Linc.
“He gives us the best opportunity to win right now,” Pederson said. “He is our backup right tackle right now. Therefore, he's going to play, and he's going to gain valuable experience week in and week out.”
The Vikings have the NFL’s No. 1 defense and lead the NFL with 3.8 sacks per game — 19 in five games. They're allowing just 12.6 points per game.
NFL
Defensive ends Everson Griffen, Brian Robison and Danielle Hunter have four sacks each for the Vikings, Linval Joseph has three and defensive tackle Tom Johnson has two.
Pederson said watching film of Vaitai from Sunday’s 27-20 loss to the Redskins shows the 23-year-old rookie improving as the game went on.
“You look at it from a certain perspective, then you get a chance to come in today and watch it again and you get a different perspective,” Pederson said. “Felt like he (had a) slow start but really settled in nicely throughout the game.
“Was it perfect? Was it pretty? No. Were there assignment errors? Yes. And I'm not going to stand here and point the finger at ‘Big V’ because that's not what happened. There were enough mistakes all around in this football game that cost us this game. But I thought as the game progressed, he settled in nicely and did some good things.”
Ryan Kerrigan had two of the Redskins’ five sacks, Vaitai got pushed around so much that Carson Wentz rarely had time to set his feet and throw, and the Eagles weren’t able to get into any offensive rhythm until the fourth quarter.
Pederson was asked if it’s risky to go back to Vaitai instead of using what’s perceived as the safer combination of Stefen Wisniewski at left guard and current left guard Allen Barbre at right tackle.
“Listen, there's a risk every time they take the field,” Pederson said. “Plain and simple. Every time we take the field, there's a risk.
“Regardless of whether it’s a rookie or a veteran out there playing, I can't get caught up in that. I'm not going to worry about that as much my focus is to get ‘V’ ready to go.
“He'll be a lot better this week. He's now got a full game under his belt. And that's valuable experience that he can learn from going into this week.”
When word of Johnson’s likely suspension came down back in August, Pederson immediately began using a first-team offense with Barbre at right tackle and rookie Isaac Seumalo at left guard. That soon evolved into Wisniewski and Barbre.
But Pederson said he has no intention of going with that option and said the transition for Barbre wouldn’t be an easy one.
“Barbre, right now, he's been playing really well at left guard,” he said. “It's a whole new position going from left guard to right tackle. You are out there on an island. It’s just making a double switch like that is tough. Even though it is two veteran players, that's a tough switch.
“We did things in this football game to help, whether it be sliding protections or chips or whatever we needed to do to help (Vaitai), and we'll continue to monitor that as we go and as we put game plans together in these next couple of weeks.”
The Eagles had just 41 yards of offense in the first half Sunday and only 90 in the first three quarters. It was the third time in their last nine games at FedEx Field they failed to score an offensive touchdown.
But Pederson said using extra resources to provide occasional help to Vaitai wasn’t the reason for the offensive woes and said he can still give Vaitai help without hurting Wentz’s ability to distribute the ball.
“It's an easy thing to do just with a simple call, and the backs can still get in their spots and still do their routes,” Pederson said. “We did enough five-man protection in this game too that we were able to get all five guys out in the route. Yeah, I was comfortable there.”