A long-term look at the Eagles' offensive line

Will the Eagles be able to maintain their high standard of offensive line play beyond 2026?

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Landon Dickerson (69) and Lane Johnson (65) are part of a lineage of outstanding offensive linemen produced by the Eagles.

Over the last decade, the Philadelphia Eagles have probably had the best offensive line in the NFL. From 2016 to 2025, they sent eight different offensive linemen — Jason Peters, Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks, Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, and Cam Jurgens — to a combined 21 Pro Bowls. 

They have successfully been able to replace outgoing stars with incoming stars, and aside from a few rare down seasons they mostly haven't skipped a beat. That's an ongoing challenge.

The Eagles' current offensive line will be going through a transition over the next year, with Lane Johnson announcing that the 2026 season would likely be his last, and with both starting guards' contracts soon coming to an end. A visual look at how long each OL starter is under contract:

Let's look at each spot individually, ranked from least concerning, long-term, to most concerning:

LT Jordan Mailata

Mailata has become a star player, and he is under contract through the next three seasons. The Eagles are set at LT for a while.

C Cam Jurgens

After playing through a back injury during the Eagles' Super Bowl run in 2024, Jurgens had a procedure last February to alleviate nerve pain. He missed most of training camp, and acknowledged during the regular season that he wasn't fully recovered from that procedure. It showed on the field, as Jurgens did not play to his standard, despite being voted into the Pro Bowl.

This winter, Jurgens went to Colombia to get stem cell treatments. He was a full participant in spring practices, and has not yet missed a practice during training camp. Back injuries tend to linger, but in my view so far this summer Jurgens looks more like the player he was in 2024 than the one he was in 2025.

We'll see if he can hold up throughout the season, but his participation and play this summer have been very encouraging. The Eagles should be set at center for a while, but with some wiggle room for a setback.

LG Landon Dickerson

Dickerson battled through an assortment of injuries in 2025, some known, like an August meniscus injury that required "a minor procedure," and a foot injury suffered at some point during the season. There was also some stuff that he kept to himself. Dickerson has only played five NFL seasons and he is still only 27 years old, but there were questions about whether he would retire this offseason, as his body has accumulated a lot of wear and tear. Dickerson denied that he considered retirement, for the record.

He took a pay cut this offseason, and a year was lopped off of his contract, which now only runs through the 2027 season.

Like Jurgens, Dickerson went to Colombia for stem cell treatments, and he has also been a regular on the practice field this season. That's a good sign. However, unlike Jurgens, in my opinion, Dickerson has not looked like the Pro Bowl version of himself so far this summer. Again, like with Jurgens, we'll see.

RG Tyler Steen

This will be the first year in Steen's professional career that he will not be in a camp battle for the starting RG job. It's his. Steen led all Eagles offensive players with 1,009 snaps played in 2025. PFF had him down for 2 sacks allowed.

Though Steen didn't have a lot of highlight reel run blocks like Mekhi Becton did the previous season, he was effective in pass protection and in my opinion wasn't some sort of obvious liability in the run game. He was fine, especially for a guy in his first season as a regular starter who played exclusively at OT in college. He has also had a good summer so far, and in my opinion is a breakout candidate in 2026.

Of course, because he was a bit of a late bloomer, Steen's rookie contract is going to be up after this season. There hasn't been much chatter about an early contract extension, and Steen declined to discuss his contract situation with the media.

Johnson's inevitable retirement should increase the Eagles' urgency to get a deal done with Steen if only for the sake of continuity. Steen's representation would probably be wise to accept nothing less than a no-brainer offer before his hits free agency, since teams around the league are desperate for starting offensive linemen and will pay heavily for them if they hit the open market.

This will be the first season in a while that the Eagles will have the same Week 1 starting RG that they had the previous season.

2019: Brandon Brooks
2020: Nate Herbig
2021: Brandon Brooks
2022: Isaac Seumalo
2023: Cam Jurgens
2024: Mekhi Becton
2025: Tyler Steen
2026: Tyler Steen

It has been a spot that the Eagles have been able cycle guys in and out, but that might not be a luxury they can afford with Johnson no longer buoying the RG on the outside.

RT Lane Johnson

And finally, there's Lane Johnson, one of the best offensive linemen in NFL history, and still an elite player, when healthy. Since 2016, the Eagles have a 15-27 (0.357) record when he doesn't play. If indeed he does retire after this season, there will almost certainly be a significant drop-off in play to whoever fills in for him.

Possible replacements on the roster

As we laid out above the Eagles could be forced to replace two spots along the offensive line next offseason if Johnson retires and Steen leaves in free agency. It could be three if Dickerson proves to be in steady decline, or if Jurgens' back flares up. 

Drew Kendall

Kendall is a second-year player who played just 89 snaps in 2025. Earlier this offseason, we reviewed his performance in the Eagles' Week 18 game against the Commanders last season. Based upon what I watched — with the disclaimer that it was a small sample size — I liked what I saw from him.

Kendall was strictly a center in college, but he cross-trained at guard in practice last season, and has continued to do so throughout the summer. He has had a very good camp, and the Eagles have to like what they see in him as the first guy off the bench at all three interior offensive line spots.

He also feels like a capable starter down the road, if he needs to fill in for Dickerson, Jurgens, or Steen.

Markel Bell

Johnson has praised Bell, a third-round rookie, for his ability and work ethic, and so far Bell has looked like a capable out-of-the-box swing tackle as a rookie. He's huge (6'9, 346), but also reasonably light on his feet for a guy his size.

He should have a floor competency in pass protection because of his elite length, nimble feet, and coachability. We're still a ways away from projecting him as an unquestioned successor to Johnson at RT, but the early signs are encouraging.

Others

• Willie Lampkin is a comically small lineman at 5'10, but he has had a spectacular camp and a fun first preseason game. He can out-leverage bigger defensive linemen and is powerful enough to move them against their will. But, he is going to require a whole lot of help against the Dexter Lawrences of the world. For now, he is a fun player with legitimate talent and he has probably played his way onto the roster, but we'll see what he looks like if he has to play in real games.

He feels more realistically like a versatile interior offensive line backup, but maybe he'll continue to overachieve?

• Micah Morris is a rookie with appealing size and athleticism traits, and he has not looked overwhelmed so far in camp. He is likely to make the team, and although he very likely won't play in meaningful games in 2026, he is worth developing.

• The Eagles drafted Cameron Williams and Myles Hinton on Day 3 of the 2025 draft. Neither had a good camp in 2025, or so far in 2026.

Outlook

The Eagles should still have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL in 2026, and they have a couple of pieces in the pipeline who look like they have realistic futures as NFL starters, but I would also expect the Eagles to continue to load up their offensive line pipeline in the next draft.

And, of course, we would be remiss if we didn't note that Jeff Stoutland was an incredible developer of offensive line talent in his time with the Eagles, while new OL coach Chris Kuper is more of an unknown.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/long-term-look-eagles-offensive-line-lane-johnson-landon-dickerson-cam-jurgens-jordan-mailata-tyler-steen/

I used to have complete confidence that the eagles could draft OL projects and Jeff Stoutland could develop them into starters or dependable backups. Once the eagles screwed Stoutland and he stepped out, that confidence faded........Chris Kuper has couple years experience, but chances are he's no Jeff Stoutland.

Kuper has huge shoes to fill and if Jurgens and Dickerson can't return to form and suffer nagging injuries, the backups don't inspire confidence just yet.

On 8/22/2026 at 12:19 PM, birdman#12 said:

I used to have complete confidence that the eagles could draft OL projects and Jeff Stoutland could develop them into starters or dependable backups. Once the eagles screwed Stoutland and he stepped out, that confidence faded........Chris Kuper has couple years experience, but chances are he's no Jeff Stoutland.

Kuper has huge shoes to fill and if Jurgens and Dickerson can't return to form and suffer nagging injuries, the backups don't inspire confidence just yet.

Don't buy into the media's hand wringing narrative. Lampkin, Bell and Kendall have all improved and even thrived under Kuper.

This whole article is just another example of the Negadelphia media glass half empty attitude. It serves no purpose and aside from telling us the contract status was a regurgitation of information we've been fed all off-season and wasn't even informative.

Except for Ruben Frank, I hate the Philly media.