Box scores tell you Willie Lampkin made his first NFL start in London. The tape explains why that debut stood out.
In the Eagles’ win over the Jaguars, Lampkin got a real look in the trenches and came away with a performance built on leverage, balance, and pure force. The first crack at the Jake Majors-Willie Lampkin combination was especially encouraging.
Majors had to work across the face of Davon Hamilton, and Lampkin made it easier by not just chipping Hamilton, but knocking him off his feet. That let Majors gain the leverage needed to seal the block, and Lampkin immediately climbed to the second level and got his eyes on the linebacker.
It’s the kind of sequence that starts with a clean snap, moves through the chip, and ends with contact up the field - textbook work on the interior.
There’s also a version of that same play where Dameon Pierce (39) could have pressed the alley off Lampkin’s back hip and met the safety one-on-one in the hole. Instead, the Eagles will study it and circle back to it, especially if it’s Saquon Barkley carrying the ball there, because that one could have ended up as a touchdown.
Lampkin’s pass protection held up just as well, and maybe even better. Arik Armstead is 6-foot-7 with 33-inch inch arms.
Lampkin is 5-11 with 31 1/2-inch arms. The size difference is obvious before the ball is even snapped, but that didn’t matter once the rep started.
Armstead tried to jump outside and then used a long arm with his inside hand to try to put Lampkin on his heels. Lampkin stayed controlled, handled the inside part of Armstead’s body, and drove him away from the play.
When the backside A-gap defender came in on a stunt with Armstead, Lampkin didn’t lose the rep - he reset his anchor, got his right foot back in the ground, and showed the kind of lateral quickness and low center of gravity that keep a guard alive against pressure.
Then came the kind of downhill work that makes coaches grin. On a draw near the goal line, Lampkin was asked to serve as the lead blocker, and he absolutely buried Matt Dickerson (93).
Dickerson didn’t move vertically or laterally, and once Lampkin locked in with his hands, the Jaguars defender had nowhere to go. Lampkin did exactly what the play demanded: keep Dickerson out of the B-gap and keep driving.
His nastiest snap might have come in a blitz pickup off the left side. The Eagles handled the pressure cleanly as a unit, but Lampkin’s individual work was the eye-catcher.
He slid outside, got Jarrian Jones under control, and stood him up fast. His facemask got right into Jones’ chestplate, and Lampkin lifted him off the ground with ease before driving him out of the frame.
For a young player getting his first shot, that’s the kind of live-game tape that matters. Practice can teach the scheme, but it can’t fully recreate the violence and timing of actual NFL snaps. Lampkin’s debut offered enough in body positioning, physicality, and finish to earn a long look moving forward, regardless of who returns from injury.
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