There’s one big reason to think the Eagles will be terrific in 2022. Jason Kelce put his finger on it.
All the offseason additions and improvements were great. But the Eagles have fortified themselves at their foundation: the offensive line. And that matters more.
It’s rare that the best tight end in the NFL looks like a pipsqueak, but there was no other way to see Travis Kelce late Wednesday afternoon as he mingled at a Jersey Shore bar, lending support to his brother Jason at a fund-raising event. Travis is 6 feet, 5 inches, and 256 pounds of speed and power. On average, he catches 95 passes and scores eight touchdowns a season for the Kansas City Chiefs, gaining about 13 yards on each of those receptions. He’s a star. He’s a beast. But compared to someone else at the bar, he was a mouse.
Jordan Mailata, the Eagles’ starting left tackle, was there, too. Mailata is the tallest player on the Eagles’ roster, and he is the heaviest player on the Eagles’ roster, which means he is the biggest player on the Eagles’ roster, by any measure. He is 6-8 and 365 pounds, and his presence was a reminder of the best reason to think the Eagles can meet the rising expectations around them. That reason is their offensive line. It was their greatest strength last season, and even with all the additions and improvements they have made, it promises to be their greatest strength this season.
The schedule is cushy and forgiving. A.J. Brown is terrific. DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert are excellent and should get better. Haason Reddick, James Bradberry, and Nakobe Dean should help the defense. Jalen Hurts is the most consequential player on the roster and is, of course, a wild card here. The offensive line is not. The line is why the Eagles, after losing five of their first seven games, could scrap their preferred offensive strategy of having their quarterback be the sun around which all their planets orbit. Hurts wasn’t ready to be that kind of quarterback. There are still questions about whether he ever will be.
It was the line that allowed Nick Sirianni and Shane Steichen to turn the Eagles into an effective anachronism in the modern NFL: a run-first team. It was the line that led to the Eagles finishing first in the league in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and rushing first downs; second in rushing attempts; and fourth in yards per rushing attempt. It was the line that still gave up just 31 sacks, the sixth-fewest in the league. It was the line that allowed them to go 9-8. It was the line that got them into the playoffs and saved their season.
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The best thing that the Eagles do as a football organization is acquire and develop offensive linemen. Kelce, a sixth-round draft pick in 2011, and Mailata, a seventh-round pick in 2018, are two of the best examples of their success in this regard. Those seasons when the offensive line wasn’t an asset and was if anything a weakness — 2015 and 2020, for instance — stand out, and those problems tend not to linger.
Philosophically, the Eagles view a strong line as essential to team excellence. Practically, they employ Jeff Stoutland, one of the NFL’s best position coaches, if not the best, and they funnel resources and labor into keeping their line deep and talented, and generally speaking, that depth and talent becomes self-perpetuating.
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“With all these young guys, I give pretty much the same advice: Don’t let the worry about what your responsibility is or what the play is to dictate your speed in the game,” Kelce said. “We can always correct missed assignments. That’s going to get fixed, especially with Jeff Stoutland as your offensive line coach. You’re not going to be allowed to do that. But what you can’t correct is incredible physical traits that are going to separate you or things that you do that come natural to you that might not come natural to another player.”
Consider the line’s makeup at the moment. Four of the five starters are set: Kelce at center, Mailata at left tackle, Landon Dickerson at left guard, Lane Johnson at right tackle. Isaac Seumalo, having missed 14 games last season because of a Lisfranc injury, would seem the favorite to win the right guard job. Kelce spoke as if he considered Seumalo the clear-cut choice.
“I would like to say he’s become refocused, but that dude has been just so awesome from the moment he got here in his work ethic, his attention to detail, his intelligence,” Kelce said. “I really can’t say enough things that I think of when it comes to Isaac Seumalo. I think he’s an incredible player, and the injury things have been unfortunate.
“That injury he suffered is a severe injury, but for some reason, because it’s Isaac Seumalo, I feel very, very confident he’s going to come back right where he left off. He’s the epitome of what it means to be a great teammate and a great Eagle, and I can’t wait to see him back out there this year.”
» READ MORE: Change of the right guard: Eagles’ Isaac Seumalo expected to compete for starting role
If Seumalo doesn’t return as the player he was, though, the Eagles will have at least three viable candidates to replace him. Jack Driscoll and Sua Opeta have started 17 NFL games between them, and the team selected Cam Jurgens in the second round of this year’s draft.
Should Kelce, Mailata, or Johnson suffer an injury, Driscoll and Andre Dillard are available to play tackle, and Jurgens’ natural position is center. Those offseason trades and signings got everyone’s attention, and they matter. But the Eagles have fortified themselves at their foundation, and that matters more.