Welcome to the curious case of Halapoulivaati Vaitai. As fans of football, especially Philadelphia Eagles football, we expected there to be some growing pains. We thought, when the Eagles drafted their franchise quarterback Carson Wentz in 2016, that his success would hinge on putting talent along the offensive line in front of him.
The Eagles agreed, and in the same draft, they took Isaac Seumalo in the third round at pick 79. Then, they took Vaitai two rounds and 85 picks later at the 164th spot.
The expectation was it would take all of this young talent time to gel with one another and grow.