Breakthrough Or Bust For Eagles' Third-Year Hopeful?

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles have greenlighted the sequel to Tyler Steen’s excellent adventure at right guard.

However, the 2023 third-round pick’s pending run at the position this summer is likely his last attempt to join the cool kids in the back of the Eagles’ locker room.

The star students of Jeff Stoutland University are all big men on campus, both literally and figuratively, ranging from future Hall of Fame right tackle Lane Johnson to an All-Pro level left side with Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson, and a Pro Bowl center in Cam Jurgens.

Last season Mekhi Becton fit in nicely at right guard with a bruising, physical style of play that worked well in a run-first environment.

If you rewind to training camp last year, Becton started the process as the reclamation project to fill the game-day swing tackle role after flaming out with the New York Jets as the 2020 No. 11 overall pick. Steen was the penciled-in starter at RG with a locker in between Jurgens and Johnson.

It took all of 10 days of inactivity with a sprained ankle by Steen in training camp for Becton to stake his claim en route to enough pancakes to keep the local IHOPs stocked, a Super Bowl LIX ring, and a two-year deal in free agency with the Los Angeles Chargers that priced him out of Philadelphia’s budget due to the financial assets allocated to Stoutland’s big four and some long-term injury concerns.

The current setup, entering on-field OTAs later this month, is eerily similar to last summer, with Steen as the default setting in front 2022 No. 15 overall pick Kenyon Green as the reclamation project coming over from Houston.

The cast of the sequel is even deeper, though, with Matt Pryor returning after a solid season in Chicago and a host of younger players like second-year man Trevor Keegan and Day 3 big-bodied rookies Myles Hinton and Cameron Williams as potential Becton-like transition players from tackle to guard. You can also add a potential center to guard shift for the more undersized Drew Kendall.

And Stoutland even looked at 6-foot-8, 341-pound undrafted rookie Holland Pierce at RG in rookie camp.

That’s enough bodies for the best offensive line coach in the game to work with to comfortably presume Stoutland is going to find competency at the only position with a question mark on it from the offensive side of the ball for the Eagles.

In handicapping Steen vs. the field, the latter is further ahead with the sequel set to start but there's no obvious Becton-level upside for Steen to deal with this time.