Since the beginning of his time in Philadelphia, Chip Kelly had the players necessary to create a dominant offensive unit in the trenches. With an offensive line composed of one future hall-of-fame left tackle in Jason Peters, two Pro Bowl level players in Jason Kelce and Evan Mathis playing center and left guard, respectively, one gritty veteran in Todd Herremans at right guard, and a young stud in Lane Johnson to play right tackle in his high powered scheme, the potential seemed to be a match made in heaven.
Philadelphia’s offensive line needed very little time to gel as well because they were very familiar with each other from the previous regime, former Head Coach Andy Reid. The offensive line became one of the strongest units in the entire NFL and was the absolute basis for Chip Kelly’s dominant run game during the last two seasons.
But with key departures at both guard spots along the offensive line (and Lesean McCoy moving to Buffalo), that success did not shine through into his third season as head coach.
At the moment, Matt Tobin and Allen Barbre start for the Eagles at right guard and left guard, respectively, and the result of their play through the first six games is pedestrian, at best, compared to the glory days of the last few seasons. Last season, injuries bit the Eagles hard in the first six games especially on the offensive line. Despite those injuries, they were still able to churn out 696 yards rushing and four touchdowns, which was considered a very poor beginning to that season.
In the 2013 season, the Eagles ran wild over the NFL tallying 1,071 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in the first six games. In six games this season, the Eagles have a total of 621 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns. If this were an Andy Reid team during the 2000’s, that stat line would be astounding. However, for a team that uses the run game as the foundation of its offense, that stat line is very VERY average.
No one mistook Tobin or Barbre for Pro Bowl caliber players at this stage in their careers but the level of play that they have displayed early on this season is sub-par, although improving steadily.
A snapshot of the Eagles offensive line struggles as of late came last week, when Tobin was manhandled by a Giants pass rusher. The most unsettling part of this was that the rusher, who put a hit on Bradford, was starting fullback Nikita Whitlock. An offensive lineman getting beat by a defensive tackle in today’s NFL is one thing, but getting put in a spin cycle by a fullback is something completely different and embarrassing.
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