The Gold Standard in Building the Trenches
The Eagles have been highly competitive on both sides of the ball over the last two to three years, through a barrage of serious injuries to core players. Journeymen and developmental players having to take on big roles at crucial spots on the lineup.
Maintaining that level of competitiveness through such adversity requires both overall depth and continuity in at least one position group. For the Eagles, the building blocks are the trenches, both on offense and on defense.
On offense, the team not only has a star-studded line but also one of the best (and most underrated) OL coaches in the league in Jeff Stoutland. Jeff made the transition from an injured Jason Peters to then-rookie Halapoulivaati Vaitai during the 2017 season look seamless, through scheming to Hal’s strengths and coaching him up to not be a liability. That campaign, of course, ended up with a Super Bowl ring on their fingers. In 2018, the team once again suffered from injuries, having to deal with Peters struggling with health yet again and Jason Kelce playing through a myriad of different issues. But, while that surely hindered their performance, it never became too much of a problem, as the unit was solid enough to have three Pro Bowlers and one All-Pro. For 2019, the team added depth, although some may argue not enough, and will hopefully have their starting 5 healthy, assuming Brandon Brooks can fully recover from the Achilles tear he suffered in the playoff loss to the Saints.
Having an elite offensive line can mask a lot of deficiencies in the rest of the offense (i.e.: Cowboys), with them being able to carry the load on the ground and/or provide the QB with lots of time to process a defense. Getting the right mix of players at the line can be almost as important as finding a franchise signal-caller, so the front office is very correct on their approach to building a potent offense.
On the defensive side of the ball, it’s all about keeping players fresh. The Eagles have, since DC Jim Schwartz came into town, employed a rotation-heavy approach at the D-Line spots, carrying tons of quality depth to keep their stars fresh and rested to capitalize on the opposing line’s tiredness. In addition, Schwartz’s entire scheme relies on generating pressure without blitzing, to create mismatches and disguise coverages in the backend. The depth chart has constantly been at least two-deep with top quality players in every spot on the line to enable this rotation to succeed, which it very much has. Under this scheme, Fletcher Cox has blossomed into the best non-machine DT in the NFL, while Brandon Graham finally played up to his lofty draft status.
Success on the defensive line rotation must also bear credit to the scouting department, especially the pro-scouting sector. They were able to identify major contributors in aging players like Chris Long, Michael Bennett and, hopefully, Malik Jackson, to complement the homegrown stars.
The only thing this group needs now is for Derek Barnett to come back strong after his injury and develop into the pass-rushing menace he was at the college level, in order to cement its status as the best, deepest rotation in the league.
Featured Image: Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports
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Categorized:Eagles