The Eagles May Not Be Able To Deal With Life Without Lane
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — The potential mess of an Eagles' season is becoming messier. Lane Johnson spoke candidly to the media on Saturday about the strong possibility that he will receive a 10-game suspension for violating the NFL's PED policy for a second time.
That leaves the Eagles with an offensive line that reads from left to right like this: left tackle Jason Peters, left guard Isaac Seumalo (replacing Allen Barbre), center Jason Kelce, right guard Brandon Brooks and right tackle Barbre (replacing Johnson).
Rub your eyes, wince and take in a deep breath, because this is the stark reality of that situation: Peters has been breaking down the last few years, and his Hall of Fame career is being whittled away under a pile of injuries. The last few years he's been playing at around 70-percent, he admits. Seumalo, the rookie third-round draft pick out of Oregon State, admittedly had a horrible game in his preseason debut against Tampa Bay—and what's more, played every position on the offensive line in college, but left guard.
Kelce is coming off, he admits, the worse season of what has been so far a distinguished career. Brooks has been nagged by a hamstring injury the entire training camp and barely practiced or played, and right now, Barbre seems the steadiest player on a patchwork offensive line that will be relied on to protect an injury-prone quarterback in Sam Bradford, and a terribly undersized back-up in Chase Daniel. Then there is promising rookie Carson Wentz, who the Eagles can ill afford to risk losing to a major injury during a season in which nothing may be gained toward winning a Super Bowl.
That's the bleak future the Eagles face in 2016.
Eagles' coach Doug Pederson did some shuffling, moving Johnson to second team due to his pending suspension.
"The logic? Again, I wanted to see [G] Isaac [Seumalo] at left guard with the ones; I wanted to see [G/T] Allen [Barbre] at right tackle; wanted to see [C/G] Barrett Jones at center," Pederson explained. "It's that time at camp now where we start shuffling some guys around up front to just see where we're at and see guys play in multiple spots."
Barbre did play right tackle in 2014, when Johnson had a four-game suspension to open the season due violating the NFL's PED policy the first time. But Pederson may rotate others in at right tackle.
"Obviously, you got 'Big V' [T Halapoulivaati Vaitai] sitting right there," Pederson said. "Of course, [T] Jason Peters [is] on the left side. [G/T] Matt Tobin can play both sides, and he played well the other night [with] limited reps.
"But again, it's a situation where this is the time … Once you get kind of through that first game, you start shuffling your roster a little bit. I want to see different receivers in different spots. And then up front I want to see the combination of guys, particularly Isaac [Seumalo], too, getting a chance to work with that first unit and go against our first D-line [defensive line]. I think [it] is a valuable experience for all those guys."
When asked what Seumalo showed him on tape Thursday night, Pederson said, "A guy that knows his assignments. He had a couple of penalties in there, some false starts and things. He's just got to listen to the count. The quarterback cadence was a little different.
"He's a guy that's really challenging to play. He's a young guy that, again, knows his assignments; good fundamentally; a technician. Just, again, [we] want to put him in positions where he can be successful and help us down the road."
When Seumalo was asked about his performance Thursday night, his opinion of his play was somewhat different than his coach's.
"I started overthinking stuff, and you play slow when you do that, and you can't do that," Seumalo said. "Hopefully, it's all uphill from here. Mentally, I can get the playbook down. It's all about playing fast. Guys are too good in the NFL to overthink.
"I'm a harsh critic of myself. I hold myself up to a higher standard. Thursday was where I don't want to be. I understand that it's preseason and it's my first game, but I always try to think about what I need to get better."
Seumalo said there was a lot of miscommunication on Thursday night.
"There were a lot of bad plays [Thursday night]," Seumalo said. "Anytime where is miscommunication, it's always bad. It's weird with offensive line, four guys can be great and if one guy is bad, it can be a bad play."
