Eagles’ offensive line unit ranks as best in the league, per PFF

While the Eagles season has been a bit rocky over the final few weeks of the season, an area of the team that one media out still thinks excelled is the offensive line.

The offense has looked and felt felt clunky all year for a myriad of reasons.

The Eagles’ rushing attack never seemed to get off-the-ground, while the passing attack didn’t meet expectations beyond AJ Brown’s individual numbers.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts seemed to take a step back in his third full season as the teams starter, looking less comfortable as the year went on. Hurt's asset as a dual-threat capabilities, mostly disappeared this season, with far less RPO and struggles against the blitz. Hurts threw just five touchdowns, but tossed eight interceptions, the most by any QB when blitzed this season.  Tampa's defense blitzed at the 3rd-highest rate during the regular season.

Longtime NFL writer Paul Domowitch, who writes for the 33rd Team, gave some more numbers to show Hurts struggles in this area.

While the team has big name skill players, its the offensive line that Pro Football Focus’ graded out as No. 1 offensive line in the NFL.

While the Eagles' offensive line, mainly due to injuries, could not keep up its 2022 form for all 18 weeks of the 2023 regular season, the unit at full strength and playing to its potential was still the best in the NFL.

Mailata (85.9), Kelce (84.8) and Johnson (82.9) were each among the five highest-graded players at their positions this season.

While few would argue that the Eagles offensive line isn't one of the better units in the league, it didn't match its 2022 season, as the article points out.

"Yeah, we have a great offensive line." Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson on Wednesday. "Those guys do a great job each and every time we go out on the field. We put so much on those guys in terms of we know they make us go. It's a great group led by some great players and by a great coach, Coach Jeff Stoutland, and those guys have always shown up on game day ready to roll."

Even if the Eagles offensive line was the best in football, it makes their struggles on that side of the ball even more perplexing. If you have a great offensive line, why is the offense struggling so much?

Its an area that ESPN's Dan Orlovsky looked out in this recent SportsCenter segment.

Which player on the Eagles offensive line did PFF grade out as the best this season?

Jordan Mailata.

Mailata was the only NFL offensive tackle this season to earn at least an 83.0 grade in both run blocking and pass blocking.

If the Eagles want to make a deep playoff run, the line needs to play like the best unit in the NFL, and that might not even be enough with how poorly the defense has been during the second half of the season.