Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Replacing Lane

Posted May 16th, 2026 | 2 Comments »

Back in 1998 the Eagles had the eleventh pick in the draft. Part of me wanted Plaxico Burress, the huge, dominant receiver from Michigan State. But the Eagles offensive line had been an issue for years and the guy I really wanted was Florida State LT Tra Thomas. He was big, long, athletic and had great feet. He had faced elite competition and thrived. He checked all the boxes. The Eagles did take Thomas and he manned LT from 1998-2008. He went to three Pro Bowls and helped the Eagles reach the Super Bowl in 2004. The OL was built around him for a decade.

In 2009 the Eagles pulled off a steal when they traded for LT Jason Peters from Buffalo. Peters manned the spot from 2009-2020. He was even better than Thomas. Peters was All-Pro twice and voted to seven Pro Bowls. Peters has a chance to be a Hall of Fame player. He was truly a special OL.

The Eagles drafted Andre Dillard in 2019 to replace Peters. Didn’t happen. Dillard was a great pass blocker in college, but simply couldn’t handle the NFL. The Eagles took a flier on some dude named Jordan Mailata in 2018. He was a massive, athletic rugby player from Australia. Mailata was able to handle the NFL and got some LT starts in 2020. He took over the position full time in 2021.

From 1998-2025 the Eagles have had outstanding LT play. There were a couple of years where injuries got in the way, but that is an amazing track record. You rarely see that kind of succession at a key position. Now the Eagles are faced with the task of replacing Lane Johnson, their star RT since 2013. Johnson will be a Hall of Fame player. He’s been All-Pro multiple times, been voted to the Pro Bowl six times and has played in three Super Bowls, winning two of them. He is one of the greatest RTs in league history.

The Eagles are not likely to find a player who will come close to Johnson’s level. He is a unicorn. You thank the Football Gods that you got a chance to watch him play for your team for so long, but replacing him will mean a step down. That’s just reality.

I keep seeing comments or tweets or lines in articles about how the Eagles were supposed to draft Johnson’s replacement, but didn’t do it. They actually did.

We spent a lot of the pre-draft period talking about OT prospects. The Eagles wanted to draft an OT in the first round. When a highly rated WR fell, they went up and got him, changing plans on the fly. Howie Roseman and his staff had worked through scenarios where someone fell and the team went away from OT. They were prepared to pivot because they had options outside the first round that they liked. Markel Bell is the option they chose. Listen to Howie talk about him.

The Eagles spent pick 68 on Bell. You don’t spend that pick on a guy you think will be Fred Johnson. Jordan Mailata is only 29 so you’re not worried about replacing him. The Eagles think Bell can be their RT of the future.

The draft is all about probability. Guys in the first round have the best chance of success because they were the best prospects. Even with that, there are no sure things (see Andre Dillard). The odds go down each round, as the level of prospects do. But the league is filled with players from all over the draft who did succeed. Brian Dawkins was the 61st pick in 1996. He went to the Hall of Fame. Bell was pick 68. The Eagles don’t need him to be a HOF. They just want to find a good RT of the future.

I get the fact there are doubters on Bell. I think part of the issue is they are focused on what he is and not what he might become. He played LT at Miami. Well, Johnson played LT at Oklahoma. He didn’t learn RT until he got to the NFL. Bell cross-trained at RT some during his college years and then in his pre-draft training. We just haven’t seen him play there on a regular basis. Bell is only 21. He has a ton of upside. It is up to Bell and the coaching staff to mold him into a starting NFL OT.

Bell is an interesting guy. He was a no-star recruit coming out of high school. Rather than go to a small college, he decided junior college was the better option for him so that he could develop. That’s pretty crazy self awareness for a high school kid. Bell got good hands-on coaching and developed into a star player at the JUCO level. After his two years there, the big boys came calling. They saw a massive guy with tons of potential. Bell chose Miami, where he would once again get very good coaching.

He started five games in 2024 and then was the full-time LT in 2025. That was 16 games. Bell didn’t allow a single sack. QB Carson Beck threw 467 passes so that’s a lot of drop-backs. Bell played at a high level and was also second team Academic All-American.

The OL who succeed in the NFL have size, athleticism, skill and brains. Bell checks all of those boxes. His athleticism isn’t on the same level as others because of his massive size. He’s not going to run or jump like others, but he has good feet and moves well. The Eagles see him as a player with all the right raw tools to become a good starting OT. They know he needs time to develop. They know he needs coaching. They are hoping that working under Johnson and Mailata will help him to maximize his potential.

This pick wasn’t made lightly. Bell visited Philly. They went to visit him in Miami. They saw him at the Senior Bowl. For him to be one of their passion players tells you that they feel strongly about him as a person and prospect.

If you watch those clips and don’t see the potential, I don’t know what to tell you. It is absolutely there. That doesn’t mean Bell will reach that potential. He could turn out to be a bust. There simply are no guarantees when it comes to draft picks. I don’t think he will bust because he’s got tremendous size and seems like he’s driven. He wants to succeed. Bell isn’t coming to the NFL thinking he’s a finished product. He knows he will have to work hard in the weight room, classroom and on the field. When you’ve got the right attitude and his size and physical skills, there is a real chance for success.

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Schedule Talk

Posted May 15th, 2026 | 2 Comments »

The NFL released the schedule officially last night. Leaks had been coming out for days, but now we know all the details. Let’s take a look at the Eagles schedule and I’ll go game by game with some thoughts.

Week 1 – Jayden Daniels will be healthy and he should make a good test for the Eagles defense. Dan Quinn will celebrate every good play and half the bad ones. Hopefully Jonathan Greenard will spend enough time with Daniels that Quinn isn’t smiling at the end.

Week 2 – Jeffrey Simmons will be a great test to see where Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens are at. Would be great to see them handle him and Saquon to run wild in Nashville. Titans LG Peter Skoronski has become a stud and is a pending free agent. Would the Eagles be interested in him, should Dickerson retire next offseason? Keep your eyes on #77.

Week 3 – The Bears got the best of the Eagles last year and it wasn’t pretty. I’m sure Vic Fangio will have his guys fired up. Watching Ben Johnson and his team celebrate last year should have the Eagles plenty motivated to kick some butt this time around.

Week 4 – The last time the Eagles lost to the Rams was in the Nate Gerry era. Could this finally be the year that Sean McVay beats Nick Sirianni? On paper, LA looks like a juggernaut.

Week 5 – UK Eagles fans better fill that stadium so the Jags contingent doesn’t control the place. Jacksonville is an ascending team and will be a tougher opponent than many realize. This will be a tough game.

Week 6 – No bye week after the UK game and the Eagles have to face Jaelan Phillips and his Panthers. Carolina gave them fits in 2024, but this is a game the Eagles should win, tired or not.

Week 7 – Dallas at Philly is always wild. And this will be on MNF. The Eagles need to win this to keep control of the division.

Week 8 – The Eagles go to Washington for SNF. I guess the league expects the Commanders to bounce back. We’ll see. That team still has plenty of holes. Anything can happen in division games and the Commanders have upset the Eagles more than a few times over the years. Sneaky tough game.

Week 9 – Jaxson Dart and the improved Giants come to Philly to find out how they stack up against the big boys. I think Saquon will be ready to run wild.

Week 10 – The bye. Coaches can assess the new offense and figure out what needs fixing.

Week 11 – The Steelers traditionally struggle in Philly. Mike McCarthy likes traditions so hopefully this one will continue. There is also the question of who will be the QB for Pittsburgh. Aaron Rodgers is still not signed.

Week 12 – Thanksgiving. Dallas. The Eagles are 2-0 in those games. Saquon Barkley talked about how cool it is to watch the winning team eat turkey after these games. Let’s hope he is enjoying Tom Turkey after a big road win. Would also love to see Jordan Davis and Lane Johnson doing the same.

Week 13 – Eagles at Cardinals. I hear there is a nice hotel in Sedona.

Week 14 – Indiana Jones and the Colts come to Philly. Sean Mannion vs Shane Steichen. They won’t go against each other directly, but it sure would be great for Sean to look good here.

Week 15 – The last two Super Bowl winners battle as Seattle comes to town. The Eagles haven’t beaten them since 1857 or something like that. This sure would be a good time to break that streak. It will be up to the Eagles D to shut down Sam Darnold. JSN vs Cooper DeJean could be a great battle.

Week 16 – The Eagles have to play on Christmas eve at 815pm. What the hell is wrong with the NFL? Christmas eve should be for chugging cocoa, watching Scrooged (vastly overlooked Christmas movie) and family time. Instead I’ll be yelling about blocking, tackling and catching the damn ball. Thanks, Rog. Even worse, the game is against the Texans and that vicious defense. Something tells me I might not go to bed happy that night. Bah humbug.

Week 17 – The rested Eagles will travel to SF, or Electric Avenue as Jordan Davis referred to it. That is one funny dude. The Eagles dominated the Niners in 2022, but SF has owned them since. That needs to change.

Week 18 – The regular season concludes with the Giants. Could this be for the division title? Will the Eagles be resting starters? All kinds of crazy possibilities.

*****

If the Eagles stay healthy, I see a 12-5 team. The overall slate is seventh easiest in the league. But there is a lot of travel and the tough games are bunched up. The league did what it could to make things tough. The Eagles face four teams coming off a bye. That’s no bueno.

My annual reminder…it isn’t just who you play, but when you play them and where you play them.

*****

Eric Edholm of NFL.com sees the Eagles as one of the schedule winners.

Last season, the Eagles became the first team to repeat as NFC East champs in more than 20 years. And they appear to be in a strong enough position to make it three straight division titles now that we’ve seen what looks like a very favorable schedule.

Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts might be facing some pressure, and A.J. Brown might soon be gone, but this is a slate the Eagles can take advantage of, even with five prime-time games and an overseas trip on tap.

After opening with the Commanders and Titans, things get thicker, especially with the Bears-Rams-Jaguars cluster (Weeks 3-5), but there’s nothing treacherous thereafter. Yes, the Eagles have three different pairs of back-to-back road games; they also have a three-game homestead over the holidays in December, which is nice timing. And they come against three quality teams, too: the Colts (Week 14), Seahawks (Week 15) and Texans (Week 16).

Even with two roadies to close out the season, including Week 17 at San Fran, the Eagles’ schedule lays out pretty nicely, featuring a well-placed bye in Week 10.

*****

Teams now release schedule videos each year. Some are brilliant, some awful. I enjoyed what the Eagles did.

It is hard not to like Jordan Davis.

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Here are a couple of good nuggets from Deniz Selman.

Deniz always has interesting info and insight.

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