Miller: Offensive Line Not Ready To Compete
Why isn’t the Eagles offensive line better?
They’ve spent a fortune on it. As it stands, they’ve committed more than $18 million to offensive linemen for the 2011 season. Over the last couple years, they’ve given Jason Peters a $60 million contract. They’ve given Stacy Andrews a $38 million contract. They’ve dealt with a troubled All-Pro, Stacy’s brother Shawn. They’ve drafted Danny Watkins in the first round.
But the line still isn’t good enough.
They’ve brought in the man that many people think is the best offensive line coach after the last decade or so.
But still, it is barely passable.
Mike Vick is dragging himself out of bed this morning, a little more bruised than he probably expected to be, because the O-line still isn’t where it needs to be. At the start of Thursday’s all-important third preseason game with Cleveland, the Eagles offensive line was not where it needed to be.
Period.
To a certain extent, you can write off Thursday night’s lackluster performance by the offensive line as a simple result of the unit still being in transition to the new methods of Howard Mudd.
They’re still working in rookie Danny Watkins, who, let’s face it, hasn’t played a whole lot of football in his life.
They’re still working in rookie Jason Kelce, who apparently is going to be the starting center. Or is he?
They’re still working through the right tackle position, which is beset by injuries to Winston Justice and Ryan Harris. And might be in the hands of young King Dunlap. Or maybe in the journeyman hands of Reggie Wells.
And there was no offseason program whatsoever, so they’re playing catch up.
And Vick is now calling the offensive line assignments. That’s new and takes some getting used to. But these are all excuses.
And, yes, this qualifies as what Mike Schmidt once called “the thrill of victory, and the agony of reading about it the next morning.” The Eagles were always in control against the Browns. But the preseason statistics don’t matter and the preseason scoreboard doesn’t matter. What matters is how you look. And the Eagles offensive line – especially the right side – didn’t look ready.
The season opener is still 16 days away and a lot can — and will — happen between now and then. But one thing that won’t happen is the starting offensive line playing in any more preseason games. They can spend 12 hours a day for the next two weeks talking about theory and walking through assignments and even hitting the Eagles defense. But no game action. No real experience for this very inexperienced group.
One hallmark of the Andy Reid era has been the Eagles’ habit of layering one too many ifs on top of their calculations. You wonder whether they’ve done that here. The hope is this: If Jason Kelce is ready and if Danny Watkins has enough experience and if either Winston Justice or Ryan Harris and/or if King Dunlap can play, everything will be just fine.
Could it work out just fine? Could the calculations be on the money?
Yes, they could.
But the Eagles’ most valuable asset right now is Michael Vick. And his protection looks like a McGyver-esque duct tape masterpiece.
And that’s a little bit scary.
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