Eagles

Super Bowl LIX Comparisons: Offensive Line

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Lane Johnson, Jalen Hurts, and Jordan Maialta

Leading up to the Philadelphia Eagles rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, Sports Talk Philly and Eagledelphia will compare the personnel of the two teams each day until gameday is here.

In this edition of our week-long comparison, we will look at the offensive linemen that the Eagles and Chiefs will field for the big game.


Philadelphia OL | Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Mekhi Becton, Lane Johnson, Tyler Steen, Fred Johnson, Jack Driscoll, Brett Toth, Trevor Keegan, Darian Kinnard, Nick Gates 

For the Eagles, their line starts with Jordan Mailata at left tackle. Mailata is perhaps the best OL in the league overall and there’s very little debate that he’s had the best season of any player expected to take the field in the Super Bowl. He doesn’t have the years of name recognition outside Philadelphia to get him awards consistently, but he was a Pro Bowl alternate, PFF first-team All-Pro, and AP second-team All-Pro. The Australian is a mountain of a man that holds down the edges. Next to him is Landon Dickerson, in his third straight Pro Bowl season and named to All-Pro teams for Pro Football Writers and Sporting news, at left guard, Cam Jurgens (Pro Bowler) at center, then newcomer Mekhi Becton, a former first-round pick revitalizing his career, at right guard. The right tackle position is held down by Lane Johnson, who was selected to his sixth Pro Bowl this season and was named second-team All-Pro by both PFF and the AP.

Tyler Steen has taken a step forward this season and received real game reps in 10 games this season while Fred Johnson filled in during 10 games of his own and made six starts for the team during the regular season. Jack Driscoll is actually their third reserve at this point and he’s made appearances in four games this season and is in his fifth season with the team, having made 17 starts for them over the previous four years.

Brett Toth may be active as a deeper reserve, but Trevor Keegan and Darian Kinnard are both regularly inactives for gamedays. Recently, Gates has been as well, though he provides center depth should Dickerson or Jurgens still be dealing with an injury by the time of the game.


Kansas City OL | Mike Caliendo, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, Jawaan Taylor, Hunter Nourzad, Wanya Morris, D.J. Humphries, Ethan Driskell, C.J. Hanson, Kingsley Suamataia

The Chiefs line is built from the center out. Creed Humphrey was selected to his third straight Pro Bowl and was a first-team All-Pro selection by both PFF and the AP. Flanking him are the team’s next strongest OL, Joe Thuney (Pro Bowler, first-team AP All-Pro, second-team PFF All-Pro) and Trey Smith (Pro Bowler). That was the plan, at least, but with so many problems outside, they’ve kicked the guard Thuney out to tackle. The other edge is still Jawaan Taylor, a second-round pick who was on the 2019 All-Rookie team. Mike Caliendo was the inserted player at guard and is a clear weak link. Neither is anything to write home about and Caliendo was thrown out as a starter in just week 15, so he’s the least experienced of the bunch.

Wanya Morris was a starter for much of the year (10 starts outside the final game of the season), but was benched as the Chiefs tried to piece together their best lineup. He was a backup for KC last year, too, so has experience and is a decent backup player. D.J. Humphries was brought in mid-year to provide depth. Kingsley Suamataia started the first two games of the year and had two other games with significant snaps, but is otherwise just another experienced depth piece for the Chiefs. 

Penn State rookie Hunter Nourzad is the special teamer of the group. He played in the meaningless final game of the season but otherwise only appears on special teams. Don’t expect to see Driskell or Hanson, both are likely to remain inactive for the big game.


Edge:

The strength of these lines is almost opposite with the Eagles being strongest on the outside and the Cheifs being strongest inside. There might be many Philly fans that’d be pissed off to hear it, but Creed Humphrey has the claim to the league’s best center with Jason Kelce having retired and that means he’s better than Cam Jurgens. It’s also a pretty fair assessment to say that the intended inside combos of Dickerson-Becton and Thuney-Smith are relatively even but with Caliendo in the mix with Smith, it’s not even close that the Eagles have the edge there. The tackle spots are drastically different with Mailata and Johnson being head and shoulders better than any option the Chiefs could put out there for their combo. Thuney has an argument that he may not be too far behind, but Taylor is in the dust. Meanwhile, Fred Johnson and Tyler Steen provide better play from backups than either Taylor or Caliendo and the best backup Kansas City has is probably on par with Jack Driscoll (Philly’s third reserve).

The dropoff from Humphrey to Jurgens isn’t nearly as momentous as it is in the tackle positions and the backups for Philadelphia are also bounds better than what Kansas City can offer. Not to mention that Jeff Stoutland is in Philadelphia. Creed Humphrey (and to a smaller extent, Thuney) is the only thing that keeps this a conversation and prevents this from being an absolute landslide in Philly’s favor.


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