{"id":857270,"date":"2026-08-16T12:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857270\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T12:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:06:13","slug":"eagles-undersized-center-willie-lampkin-continues-to-impress-in-the-preseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857270\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles’ undersized center Willie Lampkin continues to impress in the preseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago, one of the stars of the NFL preseason was undrafted rookie center Willie Lampkin, who was playing for the Rams and putting on a show<\/a>, repeatedly knocking opposing defensive linemen on their backs. Unfortunately for Lampkin, he was injured before he could earn a roster spot, and the Rams waived him with an injury designation with the hopes that he would clear waivers and end up back in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The Eagles, however, recognized Lampkin\u2019s talent and made the rare decision to claim the injured undrafted rookie off waivers. That meant Lampkin spent last season rehabbing his injury and developing in Philadelphia, and now he\u2019s impressing again in the preseason, with the Eagles.<\/p>\n

Lampkin looked great in the Eagles\u2019 preseason opener and is drawing attention in particular for one particular play<\/a>: On a third-and-15 pass, Lampkin kept Ravens defensive tackle Broderick Washington far away from Eagles quarterback Andy Dalton. Some offensive linemen think their job in pass protection is done once the ball is thrown, but the tenacious Lampkin kept blocking Washington, driving him down the field and ultimately throwing him to the ground.<\/p>\n

Lampkin was a starting guard for five years of college football, and at North Carolina he was a first-team All-American and won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the best offensive lineman in the ACC. With that kind of r\u00e9sum\u00e9, you\u2019d think he would have been a top draft prospect. But at North Carolina\u2019s Pro Day, Lampkin measured at just under 5-foot-11, and he weighed 279 pounds. NFL teams don\u2019t want offensive linemen who are that small. Lampkin went undrafted.<\/p>\n

His size hasn\u2019t seemed to matter, however, as he\u2019s routinely getting the better of much bigger defensive linemen. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said last week that every time he watches the offensive line practice tape, he sees Lampkin doing well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve seen Willie continue to get better, and you notice him even more once the pads come on,\u201d Sirianni said. \u201cHe has the ability to play center or guard, good versatility, smart guy, really athletic. He\u2019s been fun to watch at camp. We find ourselves as coaches when we\u2019re watching tape, just kind of being like, \u2018Man, Willie did it again.\u2019 And Willie\u2019s getting some really good guys to go up against. So that\u2019s tested every day, and we\u2019re just looking for him to continue to grow and continue to show what he can do because it\u2019s about consistency. We all want consistency, to have that steady growth of getting better, but you\u2019re building trust, and I think Willie is building trust with his teammates because you build trust by consistently doing what you\u2019re supposed to do out there, and Willie\u2019s been doing that. I know not only the coaches, but we\u2019re all impressed by Willie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lampkin is tiny by NFL offensive lineman standards \u2014 something that was pointed out on the TV broadcast<\/a> of the Eagles-Ravens game \u2014 but at some point, a player\u2019s on-field performance has to matter more than his height and weight. Even if he\u2019s shorter than 5-foot-11 and less than 280 pounds, Lampkin belongs in the NFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year ago, one of the stars of the NFL preseason was undrafted rookie center Willie Lampkin, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-857270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}