Banged-up offensive line and inability to run is ‘crippling’ Eagles offense, according to Jason Kelce
Jason Kelce and Chris Long think injuries up front have contributed to the team’s overall stagnant offense.
Since Lane Johnson was first drafted by the Eagles in 2013, the team is 15-25 without him. For comparison, the Birds are 120-62-1 when Johnson has played.
The right tackle’s absence hurt the Birds’ offense in Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys, Jason Kelce said on Monday Night Countdown, but it wasn’t the only problem.
“He has meant so much to the Philadelphia Eagles,” Kelce said. “In pass [protection] they leave him one-on-one on an island at a higher rate than anyone in the league. He does it all extremely well, but it’s not just him this year, the whole offensive line has been banged up.”
Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson have both been injured up this year, with Jurgens missing two games due to a knee injury and Dickerson missing one with an ankle injury. The left guard also tore his meniscus in preseason.
“They’ve been a top 10 rushing unit, as an offense, the Eagles have, every year since Jalen Hurts has been the starter. This year is the first year they have really struggled to run the football,” Kelce added. “A lot of it comes down to being banged up and not being the cohesive unit they have been, and healthy, in the past, but it is crippling this offense right now.”
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The longtime Eagles center wasn’t alone. Super Bowl-winning defensive end Chris Long also pointed to the Eagles’ offensive line struggles as a major reason for the offense’s continued inconsistency.
“This team has been built around the offensive line since we won a championship,” Long said on his Green Light podcast. “That team was built around the offensive line. This team is built around the offensive line. We always talk about, who’s the main character. The main character has always been the offensive line.”
“Now the main character is not perfect, it puts strain on the passing game. You can talk about the coordinator — I don’t know how much of it is the quarterback or the coordinator just not knowing what the [expletive] to do. If anything short of a Super Bowl, you’re going to hear a lot of stuff come out about the behind the scenes, because it’s just not functional right now.”
Long questioned what the team will look like in a “post-[Jeff] Stoutland” world because the driving force of the team has always been the running game and the high-powered offensive line — and Stoutland has been the coach of that unit for more than a decade.
Because of the inconsistencies from half to half, Long is also worried about a potential playoff matchup. The team is talented enough to pull out wins, but it has been very up-and-down.
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“They’re almost better off being down 14 points because it forces them to open the offense up, rather than being up 14 points, a la the [Los Angeles] Rams game,” Long said, referring to the Week 3 win when the Eagles rallied from a 26-7 deficit.