Adrian Fedkiw
Despite all the chaos, suspension and moving parts, the Philadelphia Eagles were still ranked in the top 10 of Pro Football Focus’ yearly positional rankings on the offensive line, coming in at No. 8.
Here’s what they had to say about the unit.
The Eagles line would have been far higher on this list if RT Lane Johnson could avoid getting himself suspended. Johnson is arguably the game’s best right tackle, but was suspended for 10 games, forcing the team to use fifth round rookie Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Allen Barbre and then Matt Tobin at right tackle as injuries prevented a settled unit. New import Brandon Brooks was excellent in his first season with the Eagles, allowing just one sack all season at guard and narrowly missing out on a spot on the PFF All-Pro team. Between injury and suspension, the Eagles were disrupted pretty significantly up front, and this unit has the potential to be better than they showed overall this year.
There was an assumption in Philadelphia that the Eagles’ offensive line was a unit of weakness, with fans immediately pointing out Lane Johnson’s suspension, but the rankings say otherwise and I agree with them. Jason Peters bounced back from a poor 2015, Allen Barbre had a career season, Brandon Brooks was solid, Jason Kelce played well the second half of the year and Halapoulivaati Vaitai steadily got better following a disastrous debut against the Washington Redskins.
The offensive line is trending upwards.