Heading into the Philadelphia Eagles' preseason battle against the New England Patriots, one of the few positional battles fans were hoping to see shake out was between incumbent right guard Tyler Steen, who was handed the position based on pedigree alone heading into the summer, and Mekhi Becton, the former New York Jets tackle who has switched over to guard over the summer.
Unfortunately, the battle wasn't meant to be, as Becton didn't play, Steen suffered an injury that saw him carted off the field, and in the end, fans were left watching the likes of Dylan McMahon and Nick Gates duke it out with the best second and third stringers New England has to offer.
Asked if Becton's absence from the game meant he was giving a full-on endorsement of the Louisville product becoming the Eagles' new right guard of the present, head coach Nick Sirianni let reporters in on where his head was at after preseason Game 2.
“Yeah, we still have some time to think through some things,” Sirianni told reporters. “We're going to have some really good physical practices next week, almost some operational things, different things like that. So we'll see. No reason to say anything one way or the other right now because we're still working through it. So we'll see.”
Alright, so is Sirianni still not sold on naming his new right guard? Publically, yes, but hey, considering Steen is, at best, not going to be at full strength heading into Week 1, it's safe to say this debate is more semantic than anything else, as Becton will likely be sandwiched between Lane Johnson and Cam Jurgens in Brazil come Week 1.
Nick Sirianni gave props to some other Eagles offensive linemen
Later in his conversation with reporters after the Eagles' win over the Patriots, Sirianni was asked if there were any under-the-radar players he wanted to give credit and Philly's head coach didn't hold back, with the offensive line earning much of his props.
“I thought the guys played hard and physical. Again, as far as defense goes, we had one missed tackle against Baltimore. I think we had four, two on the same play, against New England, which is still — you’re going to have missed tackles, but thought we tackled well. I know I’m saying the four missed ones, but there are also a lot of plays that happen during a game. So, again, we hit our percentage of what we wanted to do. Defense tackled well, defense pursued to the football well, so I’d say that as a whole, on defense we played with good fundamentals,” Sirianni told reporters.
“On offense some really nice combination blocks that set off some good runs on gap scheme plays. Tyler Steen had one in particular that he was combo-ing with [Eagles C/G] Dylan [McMahon] that I really thought was nice. [Eagles OL] Nick [Gates] had one also I think with Dylan on a similar play that was a really good combination block. I thought we blocked well, caught the ball well. Only had one drop in the game. So we played to our culture as far as our detail, as far as what we want — our effort and our fundamentals, so I thought that was a positive when you’re doing that.
“The other thing that you saw, again, you’re trying to evaluate — every time you go out there you’re trying to get better at your fundamentals, your detail, your culture, right? The outcome is not always in your control. There are different things that kind of affect that at times.
“But I really liked how our guys were connecting on the sideline as far as being there for each other. Someone sent me a clip of [Eagles WR] A.J. [Brown], [Eagles WR] DeVonta [Smith], [Eagles S] Chauncey [Gardner-Johnson], [Eagles DT] Jalen Carter, and [Eagles WR] Parris Campbell going crazy when [Eagles WR] Joe [Ngata] had a really nice catch on the sideline. Really nice play there. You love to see the energy and the guys being there for each other. So I thought that was really cool. Some of the things as far as our culture goes from the game I thought went really well.”
With just 46 players allowed on the active roster each week, the Eagles will have to settle on players who can fill multiple roles this fall, especially on the offensive line. If performers like McMahon, Gates, and Steen can do just that as hybrid offensive linemen this fall, then they won't be under-the-radar performers worthy of shout-out but instead key parts of Philadelphia's offensive machine.
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