Eagles wisely made OL coach Jeff Stoutland a requirement for Nick Sirianni | Marcus Hayes

When Jeffrey Lurie and his panel of coaching experts interrogated candidates for their opening the past two weeks, they asked each prospective victim at least one pertinent question:

Will you keep offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland on staff?

Almost all returned an outright “Yes,” according to a league source familiar with the process. Patriots genius Josh McDaniels was the most resistant to the idea (it wasn’t a deal-breaker), but McDaniels is resistant to most ideas that aren’t his, which is an overriding reason why McDaniels remains an offensive coordinator.

The Eagles’ hurried search to replace Doug Pederson was flawed from its unexpected beginning to its alarming outcome – an unproven 39-year-old coordinator who has never called plays; a Frank Reich protege with a disturbing affinity for plaid. However, asking the candidates the Stoutland question indicates that, if nothing else, Lurie and his West Palm Search Unit understand that Stoutland is irreplaceable. New coach Nick Sirianni realized this thanks to an endorsement of Stoutland from Reich, Sirianni’s boss in Indianapolis, who was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl winner three years ago.

Stoutland’s efficiency helped Reich rise in Indy.

In fact, Stoutland has been the best coach on the Eagles’ staff since he arrived from Alabama in 2013. That staff has included, in descending order of competence: running backs coach Duce Staley, head coach Doug Pederson, Reich, quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, and Mike Groh, when Groh coached receivers in 2017.

In fact, with apologies to defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, offensive coordinator Jon Gruden, and special teams specialist John Harbaugh, as well as position coaches such as Ted Williams, Ron Rivera, Leslie Frazier, and Steve Spagnuolo, “Stout” might be the best assistant coach in Eagles history.

It’s hard to argue with Stoutland’s results. His line has been a top-10 unit in seven of his eight seasons, top-5 five times, and it has never ranked outside of the top-20. This past season was its worst showing, but the forces behind it – the quarterback and injuries – were beyond his control.

Injuries forced Stoutland to use an NFL-record 14 different starting combinations in 16 games. He finished the season using a pair of fourth-string tackles. Nevertheless, the Eagles’ line ranked 19th in profootballfocus.com’s annual assessment (an annual assessment which, it should be noted, Stoutland abhors). They achieved this despite allowing a league-worst 65 sacks. How? Analysts at PPF don’t always blame offensive linemen for their quarterback’s bad decisions, so many of those 65 sacks fell on the head of Carson Wentz, who was the worst quarterback in the NFL last season.

As with many things in life, 2020 was an aberration for a Stoutland offensive line.

His lines ranked No. 1 in 2013, 2017, and 2019; No. 2 in 2014; and No. 5 in 2018. It was No. 8 in 2016, when Lane Johnson served a 10-game PED suspension, and No. 12 in 2015, finally exhausted after three years of Kelly’s ridiculous hurry-up offense. So, from 2013-19, it averaged a 4.3 ranking; add in 2020, it’s 6.1.

This is simply incredible, considering it blocked for seven different starting quarterbacks in eight years, including Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, and Nick Foles, twice.

I’ve gotten to know a half dozen offensive coaches in the 31 years that I’ve covered the NFL, and their philosophies have been as unique as fingerprints: how they coach footwork, leverage, hand placement; how they prioritize mobility, versus size, versus balance, versus intelligence.

The line coach is the most important of all the position coaches, and that includes the quarterbacks coach. These days you can’t spit out of your car window without hitting a QB guru. They had about nine of those on Pederson’s staff last year, and look what happened.

The Eagles drafted Lane Johnson in 2013. He’d played quarterback and defensive line in college before converting to tackle. Stoutland made Johnson a top-5 tackle; at least, when Johnson’s not hurt – an ankle injury cost him most of 2020 – or suspended. Jason Kelce was a mediocre third-year starter when Stoutland arrived in 2013. That season Kelce finished No. 2 among centers, was No. 1 from 2017-2019, and made his fourth Pro Bowl in December despite having an off year.

When the 2016 season began free agent Brandon Brooks was a solid, 27-year-old right guard. When the 2019 season ended Brooks was the best offensive lineman in football headed to his third straight Pro Bowl, though injury cost him 2020. Left tackle Jason Peters logged five of his six best PFF grades after he twice ruptured his right Achilles tendon and missed the 2012 season at the age of 30.

Left guard Isaac Seumalo, a third-round pick in 2016 because of his run-blocking potential, ranked No. 6 in pass blocking among starting guards, his third straight season of improvement. Left tackle Jordan Mailata, a mountainous former rugby player and Stoutland’s pet project, showed unlimited potential over the last five games at left tackle – enough so the Eagles can consider trading 2019 first-round pick Andre Dillard, the scheduled starter and Peters’ replacement until an injury ended his season just before it began. Stoutland is just getting his hooks into fourth-round rookie Jack Driscoll, a promising swing tackle.

It would have been a coup to retain both Stoutland and Staley, a transcendent running backs coach, but Lurie tokened Staley out of town with sham interviews for head coach in 2016 and 2020 and a hollow offer to be coordinator in 2018, which left Staley humiliated enough to bolt for Detroit on Monday.

So be it. Continuity is appreciated but it cannot be assumed.

If no other assistants from Pederson’s staff remain when Sirianni finishes filling out his staff, Stout will be enough.