Eagles Mailbag: Can the Offensive Line Be Fixed?
The Philadelphia Eagles are 1-0, yet the team’s win may have created more questions than answers. After placing starting left guard Landon Dickerson on injured reserve, will the team’s offensive line be fixed? Should the Eagles limit Cooper DeJean to only playing slot cornerback again? I’ll answer those questions and more in my latest Eagles mailbag.
After how poorly Dickerson played in Week 1, it’s hard to imagine that his replacement will be much worse. It seems like the Eagles are leaning towards starting second-year interior offensive lineman Drew Kendall in place of Dickerson at left guard. Based on how Kendall played during the preseason, I believe that he will be an improvement over Dickerson for at least the next month or so. Despite being relatively new to the position, Kendall seems like a perfect fit at guard in this scheme.
It’s important to note that Dickerson wasn’t the only member of Philadelphia’s offensive line that struggled against the Washington Commanders in Week 1. While Dickerson certainly weighed the unit down, it seemed like the Eagles struggled to adapt to some of the pressure looks that the Commanders were throwing at them. After watching the film and making a change at left guard, I expect the offensive line to play much better moving forward.
While watching the game live, it felt like Eagles center Cam Jurgens struggled. Yet after rewatching the film, I was much less concerned about Jurgens and actually thought that he played pretty well. He was called for a few penalties, which I believe made it seem like he was struggling more than he actually was against the Commanders. Obviously, he needs to clean that up as the offense can’t afford to be behind the sticks due to penalties so often.
In 35 pass blocking snaps, Jurgens didn’t allow a single pressure in Week 1, according to Pro Football Focus. Unfortunately, he consistently had to try and cover for Dickerson, who was constantly being beat by his blocking assignment. If Kendall can hold his own moving forward at left guard, it should take a little bit more off of Jurgens’ plate and allow him to thrive in an offensive scheme that is hypothetically a phenomenal fit for his skillset.
Absolutely not. Maybe I’m being too harsh but I’m not buying that this is some new “bone bruise” injury that only took place a few weeks ago. According to multiple reports in the summer, the 27-year-old guard was moving slowly between drills and consistently looked a step slow during practice. We clearly saw that translate to the field in Week 1 and this unfortunately feels more like the beginning of the end for Dickerson’s time in the NFL.
It’s never too early to look ahead and I believe that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is already doing so. In my opinion, part of the reason why the Eagles placed Dickerson on injured reserve is because they want to get a closer look at what they have in Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin. Roseman understands that Lane Johnson is likely retiring after this season, Dickerson could also retire and Tyler Steen is slated to become a free agent.
Therefore, as you mentioned, there is a very real chance that the Eagles could have three new starters along the offensive line next season. Here’s my projected offensive line for the Eagles in 2027.
LT: Jordan Mailata
LG: Drew Kendall
C: Willie Lampkin
RG: Cam Jurgens
RT: Markel Bell
While I don’t expect the Eagles to move Jurgens back over to guard this season, I wonder if they would consider doing so with a full offseason. It feels like an interior trio of Kendall, Lampkin and Jurgens would fit Sean Mannion’s offensive scheme and thrive as a unit working in unison. For the sake of continuity, they could just leave Jurgens at center and move Lampkin to right guard. Yet Jurgens has a bit better size for that spot. Meanwhile, Bell is the top choice as Johnson’s replacement at right tackle.
The biggest positive that stuck out to me was the impressive play of Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. He wasn’t exactly put in a position to succeed due to the poor offensive line play and consistent blitzing, yet he overcame it all and made plays both on and off schedule. It was a promising showing from Hurts in a new offensive scheme that was forced to adjust due to unforeseen struggles.
The biggest negative that stuck out to me were the unexpected struggles of Eagles defensive back Cooper DeJean. It was one of the worst games of DeJean’s young career and it’s certainly possible that it’s just a blip on the radar. Yet given his new early down responsibilities as a safety, it’s worth monitoring if there’s too much on DeJean’s plate. My guess is that he’ll bounce back and be just fine.
My guess is that they’ll keep DeJean as the second safety in the team’s base defense. Despite DeJean’s struggles in Week 1, those mistakes were mostly made while he was playing slot cornerback. The Eagles only played in their base defense on 19.4% of their snaps against the Commanders. DeJean was at slot cornerback for 52 of his 70 total snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. If those struggles continue, maybe that’s when they’ll lighten his load and have DeJean stick to playing slot cornerback.
I’m not sure that the Eagles have to drastically alter how they utilized rookie wide receiver Makai Lemon in Week 1. If the blocking was better, both by the offensive line and the skill position players, Lemon likely would’ve had a much better performance. Yet his opportunities were ruined by poor blocking or Hurts simply deciding to go elsewhere with the ball. Lemon was able to get open and opportunities will likely come his way soon. It’d be nice to see him get targets down the field but that’ll take time given how many practices he missed during the summer.
In my opinion, Mannion wanted to have a different approach in Week 1. We saw some of the new-look offense when they were under center early but it felt like they had to abandon a lot of those looks due to the struggles of the offensive line, specifically with Dickerson. I truly believe that Mannion has full control of this offense and we saw glimpses of that in certain ways against the Commanders. For example, the Eagles used motion on 62% of their plays in Week 1, their highest rate over the past 10 seasons, according to Doug Clawson of CBS Sports.
Yes, the Eagles should add another tight end at some point this season. Yet I’m still not sold on signing Zach Ertz to fill that void. While I understand the nostalgia factor of bringing Ertz back to Philadelphia, he’ll turn 36-years old in November, tore his ACL nine months ago and has never been considered a strong blocker. I’d much rather see the Eagles take a chance on a younger tight end that they could then pair with rookie Eli Stowers for the foreseeable future. Carolina Panthers tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders, who was a healthy scratch in Week 1, is a player that I’ve mentioned before as a trade target that still makes plenty of sense.
During the latest livestream on The Philly Special Show’s YouTube channel, I introduced a change to the way that I’ll be doing my weekly autographed card giveaways. I asked viewers to leave a comment on the video with questions for my weekly Eagles mailbag. While I answered multiple questions that were asked on YouTube, I stated that I would choose one of those questions as the winner of a Jihaad Campbell autographed rookie card this week.
Therefore, congrats to @americananalyst6723!
Anyone that watches the channel’s livestreams or videos is likely aware that I’m a lifelong fan of Pokemon. I compared Eagles rookie interior offensive lineman Micah Morris to Blastoise during the latest livestream and now this question is another opportunity to combine two of my favorite things. Eagles linebacker Zack Baun has already drawn a comparison to Diglett, which is fitting given his appearance. But I’ll go in a different direction.
I’m going to go with Machamp as Baun’s Pokemon comparison. While Baun doesn’t technically have the four arms that Machamp does, it sometimes feels like Baun has extra arms with his ability to deflect passes. Similar to Machamp, Baun is also incredibly strong, which he is able to show by fighting off blocks and punching out the ball. If we really want to do a deep dive, the comparison could be Gigantamax Machamp, who is even bigger and stronger. Yet that’ll open up another can of worms.