A long, long time ago, before Lane Johnson retired and Cam Jurgens got traded to Baltimore, I had a pretty good column idea all teed up and ready.

I’d listened to Nick Sirianni and Sean Mannion, over and over again, deliver some variation of “it’s not just one thing,” in reference to the offensive struggles of the 2026 Eagles. I was quite sick of hearing this. Of course, it’s rarely just one thing. But that doesn’t help you fix anything. What you do is, you pick out the one thing that is your biggest problem, and you fix that. Then you see how the rest of the stuff looks, once the first problem is fixed.

Which would have brought us to the offensive line. Of course, that’s where we are anyway, but in a radically different context than I had envisioned.

Silly me, with a family trip to London for Eagles-Jaguars coming up this weekend, I began the week trying to think of what the Eagles might do to salvage their season. My thought was that the only path forward would be to somehow stop the bleeding up front, and I had some ideas there, but the retirement of the best offensive lineman in franchise history pretty much took care of all that.

Now? I guess we all go into suspended animation, like space travelers in those old sci-fi movies, until 2028 or so, when the Eagles have all these great draft picks and things might look good again.

Yes, I am being dramatic. But I do feel a profound ending here. Put together the departure of Jeff Stoutland with Johnson’s retirement, and the way the Eagles’ offseason bet on the return to health of Landon Dickerson and Jurgens blew up in their face right away – put it all together and you have the foundation that built the Eagles’ most successful decade, bulldozed in a cloud of dust.

Now, it’s “Let’s try to eke out some wins with Jordan Mailata and a bunch of guys who are, really, just guys.” Being excited about seeing what Willie Lampkin can do, to me, is kind of on the same level as being excited to see what Tanner McKee would look like during a regular-season start. (We found out.) (Would be happy to be wrong there, Willie, if you are reading this.) (Is it good writing to string together parenthetical thoughts like this?) (Probably not.)  

While everyone is kissing Howie Roseman’s rings over his ability to get a 2028 second-rounder from the Ravens for Jurgens, I would like to call attention to the fact that Roseman’s neglect of the offensive line over the past several seasons set the stage for where we are now. Even before all this happened, I heard trusty colleague EJ Smith opine that the Eagles’ next draft might be all linemen. Now, that doesn’t seem even a little bit fanciful. 

There was a time when the Eagles made plans for these sorts of things. How many Jason Kelce successors did they draft over the years? Lane Johnson, aside from being the best player available in the 2013 draft, was initially billed as the eventual replacement for Jason Peters. This was the plan for several years thereafter, maybe even until the arrival of Jordan Mailata.

That might hint at how we got to where we are now. The Eagles were blessed with a core trio – Peters, Jason Kelce and Johnson, with Mailata eventually stepping seamlessly into Peters spot – that was unbelievably good but also really long-tenured. I think the Eagles got to a point where they started taking the O-line for granted. 

So many times, things just worked out for them. Mailata, who had never played football, nabbed in the seventh round in 2018. Brandon Brooks as a mid-level free agent signee two years earlier. They drafted Dickerson (37^th overall in 2021) and Jurgens (51^st overall in 2022), saw them quickly develop, and decided they could turn their early-rounds attention elsewhere for a while. Even though they did not have a reserve offensive tackle of any pedigree on the roster, and the interior depth was uncertain.

Now, Johnson and Jurgens are gone and nobody knows if Dickerson can still play effectively. Right guard Tyler Steen, a sort-of success story (not great, not bad) after being drafted 65^th overall in 2023, is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.

EJ has posited that we are likely to see an O-line of Mailata, Kendall, Lampkin, Steen and Markel Bell going forward. Bell would be the highest draft pick of that group, as a 2025 third-rounder. I guess we’re assuming Dickerson is done (maybe his criticism of the move of Jurgens to guard portended more than just Jurgens moving on?) I can’t imagine why you’d make Jurgens flail around at left guard for three weeks if you intended to eventually move Kendall there, anyway, but, whatever.

The thought of Dameon Pierce running behind these guys against the Jacksonville defense Sunday makes me wish I’d planned a trip that day to, say, Stonehenge, instead of hunkering down at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But I guess the 2026 Eagles are kind of a scenic ruin, unto themselves.