It looks like the Eagles have found their starting right guard for 2024

In the back right-hand corner of the Eagles’ locker room at the NovaCare Complex, there are five lockers in a row that belong to the starting offensive linemen.

Since Doug Pederson was here, those five lockers have been arranged in the same order as the starting line.

The last locker belonged for years to Jason Peters and now Jordan Mailata. Then there's the left guard locker, currently occupied by Landon Dickerson. Jason Kelce had the middle locker forever, and that now belongs to Cam Jurgens. The last one on the right, adjacent to the door into the player lounge, has long belonged to Lane Johnson.

The right guard locker? Right guard is the one o-line position that’s been unsettled in recent years.

Brandon Brooks was a Pro Bowler in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and when he missed the 2020 season the Eagles used four right guards – Nate Herbig, Matt Pryor, Jamone Brown and even Jason Peters. Jack Driscoll started most of the 2021 season after Brooks got hurt in Week 3. Isaac Seumalo played right guard in 2022 and Jurgens last year.

What about 2024?

Find out who has that fourth locker and you know who’s expected to get the first crack at right guard this coming season.

Jurgens was asked Wednesday who's got locker No. 4.

“Tyler is over there now,”

Tyler would be Tyler Steen, the Eagles’ 3^rd-round draft pick last year out of Alabama.

Steen, who stands 6-foot-6, 320 pounds, was inactive the first four weeks of last year, then played exclusively on special teams until the Cowboys game, when he started at right guard in place of injured Jurgens.

Steen, who turns 24 in June, played all 62 offensive snaps in the Eagles’ 28-23 win at the Linc. Steen only played three more offensive snaps the rest of the season.

"Hats off to Steen, man,” Johnson said postgame. “That's a hell of a first start. This is one of the better defensive fronts in the league. So, I was proud of how he did. I was really proud of how he battled.”

You always take Pro Football Focus grades with a grain of salt, but they gave Steen a 13.2 pass blocking grade for 35 pass snaps to go with a decent 66.3 run blocking grade (on 27 run snaps). That pass blocking grade was lowest in the NFL in Week 9.

“I think he played pretty good,” Nick Sirianni said the next day. “Obviously, he’s going to want plays back. A couple times he got matched up with some different guys and you’ve got to go through some of those adversities to continue to grow as a player. I thought he played a good game, though, being his first start, being a rookie, going against a good defense. … That was a good front that we went against, and I thought he did a lot of good things, and I thought he got more and more comfortable as the game progressed.``

With Jack Driscoll (Dolphins) and Sua Opeta (Bucs) both leaving through free agency, there really aren’t a lot of other options.

Free agent pickup Matt Hennessy played mainly center with the Falcons but did play 232 guard snaps – all on the left side. The only other backup interior linemen in the building are veteran Brett Toth, who's started two games in five years, and futures addition Darian Kinnard, the Chiefs’ 5^th-round pick in 2022.

Steen has the luxury of playing next to a center who played right guard last year and next to a five-time Pro Bowl right tackle in Lane Johnson.

“He knows anything that I can help him with I’m going to,” Jurgens said. “We’re all working together right now. We’re not really too worried about when we get to the season, it’s more what can we do in the weight room, how can we get conditioned, what can we do to get better.

“We have a pretty good o-line room in that everybody’s willing to help and nobody’s too big. It's fun being in that room because nobody’s afraid to ask for help and nobody’s too big to give it. It’s fun being in a selfless room. We’ve got a lot of really good dudes in there.

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