When the Philadelphia Eagles chose Nebraska’s Cam Jurgens in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the selection seemed intended to secure the successor to Jason Kelce.
That time has come. After 13 seasons as the Eagles’ center, Kelce announced his retirement earlier this month.
But will Jurgens be Philadelphia’s center in 2024?
Philadelphia drafted a center in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, too. Landon Dickerson won the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s best center for Alabama’s 2020 undefeated national-championship team.
Dickerson went right into the lineup as a guard, and he signed a four-year, $84 million contract extension last week.
Will Dickerson spend that contract at left guard or might he follow Kelce?
In the Eagles’ final game of the 2023 regular-season, Philadelphia gave Kelce a second-half rest before the playoffs, and Dickerson worked at center for 33 snaps.
“For us right now, him retiring throws a wrench in things,” Dickerson said during a Wednesday appearance on “The Jim Rome Show,” “until we get to OTAs and we can start getting out there as a team and figuring out what the best five guys on that line is going to be. I think that’s the biggest thing is the staff and the players, we want to put the best guys out there to have the best guys playing, so for us it’s really we don’t know right now.
“I’m sure there’ll be a lot of testing different combinations of people. We still got that draft coming up and acquiring other guys, so there’s no telling by the time mid-April rolls around what the team looks like, so really it’s just kind of a wait-and-see what combination works best when we get there.”
Whoever replaces Kelce will be following a six-time All-Pro at the position.
“I think we’d be here for a couple of hours if I tried to list everything,” Dickerson said when asked what he had learned from Kelce, “but I’ll try to summarize it. One, I think he was just a tremendous person and teammate overall. Just how to carry yourself. He didn’t really care to be too flashy with anything. He was always a good person no matter if it was talking to another 10-year vet, the owners or your rookie players, even like a custodian. He treated everybody with respect and treated them well.
“On the football side of things, just the amount of knowledge he has on the game. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to come close to that. But just the way that he was able to see things, pick them up and make adjustments in the blink of an eye was something I’d never seen before and something that is super impressive, especially in this league with how good players and coordinators are with schemes you’re getting and how things are disguised. He was able to just read defenses like a book. That’s one thing I’d like to learn more of how he saw things, but at the same time, he’s got 10 years of experience on me that I can’t just make up overnight.”
Whatever the configuration of the Eagles’ offensive line, it will be blocking for a new running back in 2024. Philadelphia signed Saquon Barkley in free agency after he played six seasons for the New York Giants, an NFC East rival.
Barkley had 962 yards and six touchdowns on 247 carries and 41 receptions for 280 yards and four touchdowns in 2023. He’s run for as many as 1,312 yards and caught as many as 91 passes in a season.
“I think Saquon was a great addition to the team,” Dickerson said. “Just the talent that he has along with a lot of other guys on the offense – DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, A.J. Brown, Jalen Hurts. We got a lot of talent on that roster.
“I’m extremely excited for a back like Saquon that can come in, he’s a guy that can be fast, he can get outside, he can outrun people. But at the same time, he doesn’t mind putting his head down and running through somebody. As an offensive lineman, I appreciate that. I’m really looking forward to see what our new coaches and coordinators can do with the talent we have on this roster.”
