Chance Warmack may get a look as Eagles' starter Thursday

So, we're saying there's a chance.

The Eagles haven't disclosed much about the starting lineup or how many reps players will get in Thursday night's preseason opener at Green Bay, but Chance Warmack seems likely to start at right guard. Starter Brandon Brooks suffered an ankle injury during Monday's practice and sat out Tuesday, with Warmack taking Brooks' snaps both days.

This is a prime opportunity for Warmack, the guy Tennessee took 10th overall in the 2013 draft, now scrapping for an Eagles roster spot. The Warmack narrative has been that he is a different player here, reunited with his former Alabama offensive-line coach, Jeff Stoutland. We'll start to see Thursday if that is indeed the case.

If Warmack plays with the "ones," that doesn't necessarily mean coaches think more highly of him than Stefan Wisniewski. Wisniewski was here last season and appeared in all 16 games. Everyone knows what he can do, how he fits in with the group. Warmack, not so much.

Eagles coach Doug Pederson would say only that Warmack "has worked himself into the mix" if Brooks can't play. Pederson, speaking Tuesday morning, said he was waiting for an afternoon meeting to make such decisions.

Brooks presumably being unavailable is "actually kind of beneficial" in terms of developing familiarity with a new linemate, center Jason Kelce said.

"Chance is a big guy (6-foot-2, 323 pounds), athletic. Can move. Strong.  I think he's been playing with some poor technique the last couple of years. Stout's been on him hard to fix that. Obviously, the last time he and Stout were together, he was a pretty damn good player," Kelce said. "I think a lot of what Stout's doing with him is just to get him back playing with the proper techniques."

Warmack said he believes the issue isn't so much the difference in techniques as it is the way he is being taught.

"Everybody's got different philosophies. Whatever it's going to be, it's got to be consistent. You've got to harp on it every day," Warmack said. "I always say setting on the [three-step protection] is like shooting free throws. You've always got to keep doing it."

Warmack said that Stoutland "is going to tell you how to do it, and he's going to keep harping on it, over and over and over again. That's what I like because it constantly sets off an alarm in your head when you're in that situation.

"When you see it … it clicks in your brain what it is, so you're not even thinking anymore. … It's detail, and it's repetitiveness, doing it constantly over and over and over."

In Warmack's first three years with the Titans, he started all 46 games he played in but without distinction. In 2015, Tennessee gave up more sacks than any other NFL team. This led to a complete coaching staff change, including exchanging offensive-line coach Bob Bostad for a much bigger name in the o-line biz, Russ Grimm.

Warmack seemed set to progress under Grimm – until he tore a tendon in the middle finger of his right hand in the second game of the 2016 season. Warmack needed surgery and went on injured reserve, ending his year and his Titans career, the team already having declined a fifth-year option that would have meant paying Warmack about $12 million this year.

In a CBS Sports roundtable discussion with other NFL offensive linemen last year, Warmack seemed to blame some of his troubles on Bostad, a former Wisconsin-Stevens Point linebacker.

"Not knocking D-III schools out there. We're talking about the highest level of football in the world. And you have a guy who has never put his hand in the dirt teaching me how to block," Warmack said. "You don't think there's anything wrong with that? I appreciate a coach who is open-minded to questions and comments. They don't want to hear a question that questions their philosophy. When they are closed-minded, it stunts the growth of the offensive lineman."

Right tackle Lane Johnson, the fourth overall pick in the same draft as Warmack, got to know him a bit during that process.

"Very big. Very solid. Athletic. He's been progressing in camp," Johnson said. "I think it's showing their faith in him, putting him in with us. … Just from OTAs to now, he's come a long way.

"I think Stout knows how to communicate with him better, teach him. I think other ways of teaching him over in Tennessee didn't work. … He's having a second chance here, and I think he's going to make the most of it."

In June, Stoutland told reporters : "I know Chance like the back of my hand, and I'm excited about getting back with him, getting back together and getting him back to the level he played at when we were together before.

"I don't want to get into [what happened in Tennessee] because I wasn't there. I just know when I was with him, I know where to start. I know where his vulnerabilities are, and I know where he needs to improve."

Warmack, like Wisniewski last season, enters his Eagles tenure having started every NFL game he's ever played. Either Brooks or left guard Isaac Seumalo will have to be out of the lineup for Warmack to start here. (If something happened to Kelce, the coaches might move Seumalo to center, also creating a guard opening.)  Even if there is a starting role open, Wisniewski might be first in line to fill it.

The Stoutland reunion aside, has Warmack thought about how he fits in here? He signed a one-year contract for $1.51 million, only $500,000 of it guaranteed.

"I keep it simple. Try to do my job at the highest of my ability," Warmack said. "Wherever they see me or wherever they put me, that's what they want to do. I'm just trying to be a good team player and help the team the best way I can. … Everything's been positive here."