They have a likely future Hall of Famer at right tackle and a guy who never played organized football before the NFL at left tackle. They have young Pro Bowlers at left guard and center, and they have a 1st-round bust nobody wanted at right guard.
On a team of superstars, the Eagles’ offensive line did something very few offensive lines ever do.
They got noticed.
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Nobody ever talks about offensive linemen and nobody ever notices offensive linemen and nobody ever celebrates offensive linemen. It’s all about the quarterback, the running back and receivers, the playmakers on defense.
But this year was different. The Eagles’ offensive line was so dominating and so integral to what this team accomplished that they forced everybody talking about this football team to include them in the conversation.
“I’m probably a little biased, but offensive line is probably the funniest, coolest people on the team, but nobody really ever cares because other than (center Cam Jurgens) we don't ever really touch the ball,” Landon Dickerson said. “I think we're definitely the best position group across the league by far.”
Maybe it was the tremendous personalities and back stories on the o-line. Maybe it was Saquon Barkley shouting them out every chance he got during his historic season and even insisting that they accompany him and Jalen Hurts to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Maybe it was the fact that they lost a Hall of Famer and somehow got better.
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Whatever was behind it, the Eagles’ offensive line achieved a dimension of notoriety you just never see among offensive lines.
“For us, it's always been about doing our job first,” Jordan Mailata said. “We do know that we are an under-appreciated unit and that's OK by us. But Saquon does a great job of sharing that love and that publicity, always giving thanks to us. And that's probably one big reason, because of Saquon, that we've gotten a lot more love than recent years. That shows you the kind of character he is.”
As good as the Eagles’ offense was during the regular season, they took it to another level in the postseason, in large part due to a series of otherworldly performances by the offensive line.
They scored 145 points, most ever in a single postseason. They scored 95 points in their last two games, most ever in a conference championship game and Super Bowl. They scored 17 touchdowns, 2nd-most ever in a postseason.
And they became the first team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl averaging over 5.0 yards per carry with a passer rating over 100.
People noticed the guys at the heart of it all.
“Coming from where I came from, I'm not used to that,” Mekhi Becton said. “It was pretty dope to see people talking about us. To hear, ‘The Eagles’ offensive line is this and that.’ But these guys, they're very level-headed. So they don't really read into all that stuff. It was dope to see it, but our coach (Jeff Stoutland), he kept us real grounded. So I would say we didn't really care, we just kept working.”
Stoutland is one of the few common denominators between the 2017 championship team and this year’s. Lane Johnson, Brandon Graham, Jake Elliott and Rick Lovato, as well.
That was a terrific offensive line, with Halapoulivaati Vaitai at left tackle after replacing the injured Jason Peters, Stefen Wisniewski at left guard (after replacing a benched Isaac Seumalo), Jason Kelce at center, Brandon Brooks at right guard and Johnson at right tackle.
This one is better.
“We've had a history of having good o-lines over the years,” Lane Johnson said. “You play alongside all-time greats like Jason Kelce and Jason Peters you’re going to get some notoriety.
“But this year has been special. The left guard’s pretty good at doing DIY videos on Instagram. Then having Mekhi come from the Jets and being a 1st-round pick and moving to a new position and having a lot of intrigue and questions about whether he was ever going to be able to do what he did this year. And you know Cam filling in for Kelce, great story. So really you had just a diverse, unique group, great skill sets.
“And then we have a freak as our coach in Stout. So I think all of that contributed to people noticing us this year. And then we got some notoriety because everybody’s huge. I’m a big guy but I’m one of the smallest. You put all that together and it's made it really special.”
Mailata and Johnson made 2nd-team All-Pro. Dickerson, Jurgens and Johnson made the Pro Bowl. Becton resurrected his career after four miserable years with the Jets.
Each one of these guys has a unique and fascinating story and when you factor in that they helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl after the greatest center of his generation retired only adds to the mystique.
The biggest story of the 2024 Eagles was Barkley’s historic season, and that doesn’t happen without this offensive line annihilating people week after week until the Eagles had 18 wins and a Lombardi Trophy.
The Eagles were good in the first half. But they were virtually unstoppable in the second half. In the postseason, they scored on 15 of 21 possessions after halftime when they were trying to score.
This o-line got stronger as games went on and was just demolishing people at the end of games.
And every time Barkley took off on one of his patented long touchdown runs, the TV color commentator pointed out just exactly how the o-line made it possible.
“Man, I'm going to remember five guys that just kept their head down and worked,” Becton said. “And we always knew the guys in front of us were going to break, no matter what. We knew they were going to break. We're just five hard-nosed motherf—ers that just want to dominate every game and dominate every person in front of us and we're gonna do it until you quit.”
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