Lane Johnson Helps Oklahoma Make Top 10 in SI Ranking
The Eagles have managed to build one of the best offensive lines in the National Football League with only one of its starting members coming from a school that finished in the top 10 of a Sports Illustrated series called “Position U.”
SI crunched some numbers going back 10 years to determine which college produces the best NFL talent at each position.
Along the offensive line, the outcome was close.
Notre Dame was listed first with 69 points followed by Wisconsin, which had 68 points.
The SI story can be accessed by hitting this link:
https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/04/02/modern-offensive-line-u-based-on-numbers
The Irish, which doesn’t have a legitimate top prospect on the line in this year’s draft, has put just 10 offensive linemen into the NFL over the past decade, but three became All-Pros, with a combined seven first-team All-Pro nods: guards Zack Martin (four) and Quenton Nelson (two), and tackle Ronnie Stanley.
Wisconsin’s program has had 14 O-linemen enter the league since 2010, second only to Ohio State (16) during that span, including four first-round picks and two All-Pros (Travis Frederick and Ryan Ramczyk). Eleven Badgers linemen have gone on to start at least 10 games in the NFL.
Oklahoma finished seventh in the ranking. The Sooners program produced Lane Johnson.
Among the Eagles starters, Jason Kelce went to Cincinnati, Brandon Brooks went to Miami, Ohio, Isaac Seumalo attended Oregon State, and Andre Dillard came from Washington State.
Backups Keegan Render came from Iowa, which was seventh in SI’s ranking, and Nate Herbig went to Stanford, which finished No. 10.
The Eagles’ offensive line lost a par of players in free agency in Jason Peters (Arkansas) and Halapoulivvati Vaitai (TCU) that were produced by schools outside the top 10.
Speaking of losing two OL, that is an under-the-radar position that the Eagles could address during the draft. The organization’s philosophy is to be strong up front on both the offensive and defensive lines.
“You can never have enough offensive linemen,” said Eagles general manager Howie Roseman. “You can never develop enough offensive linemen, and now we're going forward. We have a pipeline of guys.
“We started eight offensive linemen last year, and as hopeful as we are going 5-for-5 during the season, we want to have a pipeline of guys and develop them, and we certainly feel like we've got a coach (Jeff Stoutland) who has shown the ability to do that at a high level.”
Alabama, which was fourth in SI’s rankings, and Iowa have two of the top three tackles with ’Bama producing Jedrick Wills and Iowa having Tristan Wirfs.
Ohio State, which is fifth in SI’s rankings, has one of the top interior players in Jonah Jackson while Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz is considered one of the best at his position in the draft.
