The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off of a season in which they had one of the best all-around rosters that the NFL has seen in the modern era. That is a testament to Howie Roseman and the Eagles organization for the work they’ve done building this roster in the last few years. However, there are a lot of questions going into this season and one of those questions is what Howie Roseman will choose to do at the guard position.
Isaac Seumalo is coming off a career year for the Eagles, but it seems very likely that his free agent status will bring him to another team this offseason. PFF projects him to earn over $10 million a year, which is a lot for a guard. And considering the Eagles other contractual obligations this season, it seems likely that Seumalo is not coming back.
Assuming that we lose Seumalu in free agency, where will we find a new starting right guard? One place I can see the Eagles taking a lineman is with one of their first round picks. They love taking linemen with high value picks, and O’cyrus Torrence from Florida is arguably the best guard in this draft. It will most likely be at pick 30, but could also happen in the middle of the first if the Eagles trade back.
Free agency is another option, considering the fact that guards are typically available for acquisition in free agency. Ben Powers and Dalton Risner are among the most likely candidates the Eagles will replace Seumalo with. Risner was just recently projected to the Eagles by PFF’s Brad Speiberger and Arjun Menon as they noted, “The Broncos employed a similar run scheme [to the Eagles] under previous head coach Nathaniel Hackett, and Risner should be able to thrive at whatever guard position the Eagles need him to play”.
But the third, and most likely option to me, is them using a player already on their roster– Cam Jurgens– to fill in the guard spot. Jurgens would only play guard if Jason Kelce comes back for another year at center, but assuming he does, there’s a good chance Jurgens can produce starting-level guard play right away. Although he’s never played guard before and was short sided on reps in last year’s offseason (because of Kelce’s elbow injury), Jurgens still has a whole offseason to learn how to play the position. And he has the best position coach in the league in Jeff Stoutland to help him figure it out.
But what do you think? Do the Eagles resign Seumalu? Do they acquire a new guard via the draft or free agency? Or do they move Jurgens to a new position? Regardless of their final decision, what they do at the guard spot will be one of the most interesting developments of the Eagles this offseason.