With Landon Dickerson out, Brett Toth has taken the reins at left guard: ‘This world doesn’t stop’
Veteran backup Toth has bided his time waiting for a chance. He may get it if Dickerson isn't ready for the season opener.
Brett Toth has learned a lot from Landon Dickerson over the last few years, but the thing he loves most about the injured Pro Bowl left guard is something he was going to have to lean on as Wednesday turned into Thursday.
“Next-play mentality,” Toth said after the Eagles wrapped up their first of two joint practices with the Cleveland Browns. “Landon likes to give this persona and he’s just a big jovial guy, happy-go-lucky, but one of his most impressive traits, it doesn’t matter if he gets beat, it’s: Next play.”
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Dickerson had surgery Wednesday morning to correct the meniscus injury in his right knee, and in his stead, for now, is Toth, who got his first tastes of football with the first team on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Toth had an up-and-down first day against the Browns. There were good reps and bad reps during what was a pretty average day from the Eagles offense.
But Toth, who has been biding his time as a backup on the Eagles’ offensive line on and off since they signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2019, was hard on himself.
“I did not perform up to our standard,” Toth said of his performance Wednesday. “I’ve got to do better, and tomorrow is a good day to respond.”
The Eagles will be back at it again with the Browns onThursday, and Toth, 28, will most likely be back in the same spot he was Tuesday and Wednesday: taking first-team reps as the Eagles’ top unit gets its most important work of training camp this week against a real opponent. (The teams have a preseason game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.)
It remains unclear when Dickerson will be ready to return after his Wednesday surgery. The Eagles are hopeful that the three-time Pro Bowler, who is one of the best guards in the NFL, can be back in time for their Sept. 4 opener against the visiting Dallas Cowboys, a game that was just 22 days away as Dickerson went under the knife.
The left side of the line took a blow when Dickerson went down Sunday near the end of the team’s public practice at the Linc. The injury raised the obvious questions of who would replace him — and whether the Eagles would need to look outside the building. Dickerson’s relatively manageable “week-to-week” timeline has meant, for now, that the latter isn’t necessary. In the interim, Toth, who had been taking just about all of the second-team reps at left guard, is in.
But Toth said Wednesday that he’s keenly aware of the fragility of it all.
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“This world doesn’t stop,” said Toth, a graduate of the United States Military Academy. “It’s the next person to step up. It’s a business.
“The reality of it, I’ve been [doing] this for seven years. Always been the backup. Always been the swing, bubble guy. Nothing’s guaranteed that it’s even mine. We have a lot of guys that can step up. We have a lot of depth as well.”
The Eagles have other options should Toth tumble. There’s Matt Pryor, who is engaged in a battle for the swing tackle job with Kendall Lamm. Pryor has guard experience, but he took some first-team reps at right tackle after Lane Johnson’s day finished a little early Wednesday. There are also Kenyon Green (dealing with a shoulder injury), Darian Kinnard, and Trevor Keegan.
But Toth, who can play every spot along the line, has been with the Eagles and offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland the longest and has been playing well this summer.
“I feel like he’s having his best training camp,” Johnson said. “I told Brett, I feel like he’s playing lower than he ever has. He’s playing really heavy-handed, so using his hands really well.”
Said offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo: “He’s a really smart individual, really good with the detail of the game. He understands a lot of positions, which is great to have a guy like that that can line up in multiple spots and be able to step in if something happens. He understands what we want to do and the way Stout teaches it, which is really important. So the details of it feel very natural when he’s next to the other guys.”
It helps that he’s next to a friend and All-Pro left tackle — Jordan Mailata, who was in Toth’s wedding. On the other side of the sandwich is Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens.
Asked if he felt any pressure in his new spot, Toth pointed to the others.
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“The only pressure I’d ever feel is to perform to the standard of the guys next to me,” he said.
Toth, who had brief stints with Arizona and Carolina, has barely played meaningful NFL football. The overwhelming majority of his Eagles snaps have come at the end of a blowout or in a game with no meaning. He has two starts in 20 career games.
Toth didn’t see the field during the entire regular season in 2024 but dressed for the playoffs. He was on the field goal unit, but also saw five offensive snaps in the NFC title game and seven in the Super Bowl.
Last week, Toth talked about knowing he would have a better chance to play football if he left the Eagles for another team. But he’s been drawn to the Eagles, to Stoutland, to the great players who have come through the room.
“When you see greatness — whatever facet it’s in, whether it’s you doing it yourself or just our O-line room as a whole — you just can’t let go of it,” he said.
For now, he gets to be a part of it in a meaningful way, and the Eagles might even need him for Week 1.
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Asked Wednesday to consider the strong camp he put together even prior to Dickerson’s injury, Toth didn’t bite.
“Now’s not the time to reflect,” he said. “For me, it’s always been the next day. What can I fix? What can I do to get better?
“It’s crazy, for us having a Super Bowl season last year, it’s the same thing. Obviously the city goes nuts and it’s everything everyone wants, but ... you have that night to celebrate and the clock keeps going and the next season is coming, and it’s: What can you do for me then?”