O-Line Coming Into Focus with Landon Dickerson Set at LG, Nate Herbig Released
PHILADELPHIA - If the second half of the 2021 season didn't convince you, the drafting of Cam Jurgens as Jason Kelce's heir apparent on Friday night should have put the punctuation on something that was fairly obvious.
Landon Dickerson is the Eagles' starting left guard, but who's the right guard?
It won't be Nate Herbig after the three-year veteran was released on Monday afternoon. Herbig, 24, played 33 games with 17 starts since arriving as an undrafted free agent out of Stanford in 2019.
Again adding Jurgens has changed the offensive line's dynamic, and it could very well be him.
"We think that he has good position flexibility, and kind of similar to Landon last year of being able to play center and guard," said head coach Nick Sirianni. "As you saw last year, we drafted Landon. He had the C by his name, but obviously played really good for us at guard.
"We feel the same way with [C] Cam [Jurgens], that he has that position flexibility. Obviously, he has the C by his name first, but yeah, we're hopeful, and we know that he can do both."
Of course, Isaac Seumalo will have something to say about that. He had been the left guard, but a Lisfranc injury in the third game ended his season.
His old job appears to be going to Dickerson.
“For us, going through the season and seeing Landon and Jordan [Mailata] next to each other, I mean, that's imposing,” GM Howie Roseman said. “We felt like the chemistry that they had developed going forward and how young those guys are, just developing that left side [is the right decision]."
The Eagles have seen that kind of Mailata/Dickerson dominance before on the right side with Lane Johnson and Brandon Brooks.
Seumalo, of course, has turned into a solid LG himself and has been a Jeff Stoutland favorite.
Seumalo's versatility plays into the comfort level of keeping Dickerson where he is as well in that the Eagles can simply slide the veteran over to the right side as the replacement for the retired Brooks.
Nick Sirianni, though, did pay deference to one of his personal favorites, Jack Driscoll, who played admirably at RG last season when healthy, and even the Kelce-coined Tesla stock Sua Opeta.
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“Isaac has played a lot of football,” Sirianni said. “We know how good of a football player he is. We'll see how everything shakes out. Isaac is coming off an injury, but Jack Driscoll played meaningful snaps. ... Sua did a great job of stepping in (and) Cam (is) in the mix there. We have a lot of good options there."
The complication with Seumalo, 28, is his health and his contract, which is significant for an OG. He's set to make $5.65 million on the final year of his contract in 2022 and count $7.668M against the cap after playing in just 12 games over the past two seasons.
If the Eagles believe Driscoll, who has had his own injury issues in two pro campaigns, can give them similar results to Seumalo at a cheaper price, a post-June 1 release or trade of Seumalo should not be ruled out because it would save the organization $5.65M in cap space this season.
Typically the Eagles' have wisely given Stoutland, their best assistant coach, autonomy over his fiefdom and he's a big Seumalo supporter, however.
That means you should pencil in the Eagles' starting offensive line as Mailata, Dickerson, Kelce, Seumalo, and Lane Johnson from left to right.
Shedding Herbig dents the depth a bit, but still includes Andre Dillard and Le'Raven Clark at tackle with Opeta, Jack Anderson, and Jurgens as the interior help.
Driscoll can play inside and out on the right side while Brett Toth will also be in the mix as a versatile inside/out piece once he's done rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in Week 18 this season.
Kayode Awosika also has OT/OG ability.
There are a few other offensive lines in the league who could challenge Philadelphia for the mythical best O-Line title but none boast the depth the Eagles have which was further bolstered by a pair of undrafted free agent signings who had draftable grades by NFL.com: Josh Sills of Oklahoma State and Bill Dunkle of San Diego State.
“Very fortunate the depth that we have there." Sirianni said. "Again, you don't ever want anybody to get injured, but you really see when somebody does here that the next guy up is ready to go.”
That depth could be spun off to bolster positions of need like cornerback and safety with Dillard the most likely to retrieve somewhat significant compensation.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
