Six degrees of Jon Runyan: The Eagles’ unbroken lineage at offensive line and a 23-year legacy

PHOENIX — Jon Runyan stood against a waist-high wall with a look of amusement on his face as the media night madness swirled below his 6-foot-9 frame.

“They keep on getting bigger,” he said in his gravely voice, a wry smile creeping across his face. “Back in the day, it was 300. Now, it’s 350.”

He looked to his left, where the subject of his musing was seated atop a riser, his broad shoulders and gargantuan head looming like a one-manned Mount Rushmore above the fray.

» READ MORE: O-Line U: Lane Johnson and Creed Humphrey are doing Oklahoma proud at the Super Bowl

“To do what he does at that size is amazing,” Runyan said.

There was a sense of pride in Runyan’s voice as he looked at Jordan Mailata, the latest link in a remarkably unbroken chain that began 23 years ago when the Eagles signed a man who was then the best right tackle in football to the largest free agent contract ever awarded an offensive lineman.

When team president Joe Banner and coach Andy Reid lured Runyan away from the Tennessee Titans and paired him with left tackle Tra Thomas in 2000, nobody knew that they were on the leading edge of a revolution. But over the next nine seasons, as Runyan and Thomas would combine to set a precedent that has led directly to this year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Chiefs and the Eagles.

Therein lies one of the many ironies of this year’s Super Bowl. The Eagles are here in large part because of the dominance of their offensive line, a road-grading group led by two perennial All-Pros whose tenures combine to stretch almost all the way back to Runyan’s last with the Eagles. In the Chiefs, they face a team coached by the man who bears plenty of credit for their current form.

Under Reid and Banner, the Eagles were well ahead of the curve in their recognition of the market inefficiency that existed at offensive line. In 2000, they signed Runyan to a six-year, $30 million contract. What the headlines didn’t say was that Runyan’s annual compensation would amount to a mere 8% of the NFL’s salary cap in Year 1 of the deal. By 2004, when the Eagles made the Super Bowl, the Eagles were spending a mere 6% of their salary cap space on the best right tackle in football. Compare that to 2022, when the average cap hit for the four highest-paid tackles in the league amounted to 14% of the NFL’s salary cap.

» READ MORE: No one likes us. We don’t care: The Eagles absorb more Philly hate at Super Bowl LVII

Two decades later, the Eagles remain the NFL’s gold standard along the offensive front. The amazing thing about their success over the years is how seamlessly they have transitioned generations. Since 2000, the Eagles have only played 34 regular season games in which they did not have Runyan, Jason Peters or Lane Johnson starting at one of their tackle positions. During that stretch, they’ve played 259 regular season games with either Runyan/Thomas, Johnson/Peters, or Johnson/Mailata both starting at tackle. Think about that. Over 23 years, the Eagles have played 70% of their games with two All-Pro-caliber starting tackles.

And we haven’t even mentioned Jason Kelce, who has started 176 of 194 games at center over the last 12 seasons, all but two of which featured two of Peters, Johnson or Mailata at tackle.

It’s a formula that much of the rest of the NFL has yet to perfect.

“I think it’s human nature, chasing the shiny new thing, where none of the stuff that happens up there is glorious,” said Runyan, who is now an executive with the NFL. “Sometimes it’s finding that diamond in the rough.”

Mailata may turn out to be the most precious of those diamonds, a 6-foot-8, 366-pound fixture whose soft feet and heavy hands were honed on Australia’s rugby fields. In a lot of ways, he is a direct extension of Runyan, who started 161 consecutive regular season and postseason games between 2000 and 2008. That streak was broken in 2009, but immediately picked up by Peters, who began a stretch of 127 starts in nine seasons after the Eagles acquired him in a trade with the Bills. Johnson arrived in 2013 and started opposite Peters for the next eight seasons. By the time Peters departed in 2021, the Eagles had Mailata ready to step in opposite Johnson.

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Reid has spent much of his energy over the last few seasons attempting to rebuild his own trenches. Two years ago, in a two-month span that followed the Bucs’ manhandling of the Chiefs in a Super Bowl loss, Reid and general manager Brett Veach added left tackle Orlando Brown (trade), guard Joe Thuney (free agent), and center Creed Humphrey. All three were named Pro Bowlers this season.

» READ MORE: The Eagles almost moved to Phoenix in 1984. One mystery about the story survived. We solved it.

In Humphrey, Reid may have found his next Kelce, an underrated center who slipped to the second round in 2021 and now serves as the unit’s glue.

“I always say, on the offensive line you can have all five guys doing the wrong thing — as long as you are doing them together, you are going to be successful,” Runyan said. “That’s really what it’s about. Having someone who has command.”

All of them are his progeny, an extension of the philosophy that Runyan, Reid and the Eagles cast into stone 23 years ago. It all starts up front.

The Eagles are one win away from their second championship. Join Inquirer Eagles writers EJ Smith, Josh Tolentino, Jeff McLane, Marcus Hayes and Mike Sielski on Gameday Central Sunday at 5 p.m. as they preview the game at inquirer.com/Eaglesgameday.