Jason Kelce Doesn't Believe He's Played with Better Skill Players Than Now

The Eagles center has been in Philly for 12 seasons and believes this offense can be as good as any he has played in during that time

PHILADELPHIA – Jason Kelce has been around many good offenses during his 12 years with the Eagles.

This latest edition has a chance to be the best, better than 2013 and 2017, he said on Wednesday afternoon.

“Skill position-wise, I don’t know that I’ve been a part of receiving corps as dynamic as this,” said the veteran center who will make his 127th straight start on Sunday when the Eagles visit the Arizona Cardinals (4:25 p.m./FOX).

“Between all three receivers and you can and in Zach Pascal with that, too, and add in Dallas Goedert, the running backs we have, there’s quite a few playmakers on this offense. 

"Then the quarterback and his abilities both in the pass and in the run game, there are a lot of things we can do, and I would imagine that’s hard for defenses to stop. I think if we stay healthy and stay working hard, I think we can be just as good if not better than those years.”

In 2013, the Eagles led the league in scoring, averaging 27.6 points per game, and were second in total yards per game at 417.2.

In 2017, they averaged 28.6 points per game and 380.1 yards per game.

The Eagles currently have the second-best offense in the NFL behind – get ready for this – the Detroit Lions.

Philly has a rushing attack ranked second and a passing attack sitting at fifth, despite coming out of a game against Jacksonville with the strong winds and sideways rain making throwing the football a near-impossible chore.

They finished last year with an offense out of balance - first in rushing, but 25th in passing. That left them 14th in the league as an offense.

This year, they are in the top five in the NFL in six offensive categories: total yards per game (2nd), yards per play (5th), rushing yards per game (5th), passing net yards per play (1st), first downs per game (2nd), and points per game (4th).

In all four games this season, the Eagles have topped 400 yards of total offense, the only team in the league to do that. Even in Sunday’s weather, they put up 401, thanks to a punishing running attack that churned out 210 yards against the then No. 1-ranked run defense.

The damage the Eagles did on the ground dropped the Jaguars from No. 1 to No. 8 against the run.

There are some concerns now, though, along the offensive line.

Left tackle Jordan Mailata did not practice on Wednesday after hurting his shoulder on Sunday. Right guard Isaac Seumalo (ankle) was limited in Wednesday’s practice.

“I think just from an offensive line perspective, I think 2013 and 2017 years, we had really, really great offensive lines that stayed healthy outside of Jason Peters going down in 2017,” said Kelce. 

“I think the offensive line won’t necessarily win you a lot of games, but it can lose you a lot of games and it can kind of derail an offense if it’s not intact…we also had good depth on the offensive line in 2017 which I think we have here.”

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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.