Eagles' Nick Sirianni Hints More Moves Are Coming to Address Offensive Line

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said that "the core group will continue to grow," and addresses where leadership might come from without Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox.

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The core group will continue to grow. Not my words. They belong to Nick Sirianni.

The Philadelphia Eagles coach met with reporters gathered in Orlando for the NFL Owner’s Meetings during the annual breakfast with NFC coaches on Tuesday morning. The offensive line was a big topic after losing veteran Jason Kelce to retirement and key reserves Sua Opeta and Jack Driscoll in free agency.

The Eagles added Matt Hennessy in free agency and signed the very inexperienced Darian Kinnard to a futures contract.

More is coming, Sirianni said.

“The core group will continue to grow,” he said. “We have, again, we have the draft, we have the offseason, there is so much more time to add to that group.”

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Free agency is drying up. The draft is coming up.

The annual selection process begins on April 25, where the Eagles currently hold the No. 22 pick, and runs through April 27.

“We’re excited about the players we have," said Sirianni. "I know we lost some good pieces, depth pieces that we’ve had. Over the last couple years, those guys contributed, played awesome minutes, and contributed to wins, but excited about the pieces with Hennessy…

“As we sit right now, I like our guys. We got guys with major experience. We have four guys back with major experience and a couple guys who played a lot of plays, too. ...We’ll see how that goes.”

The Eagles are looking at least one job opening on the offensive front with Kelce gone, depending on what happens with Cam Jurgens. Sirianni wasn’t ready to commit to Jurgens moving to center.

Even if Jurgens does, the right guard job will open. Sirianni wasn’t ready to commit to Tyler Steen starting there, either.

The draft, well, there are a world of possibilities from Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson, Duke’s Graham Barton, West Virginia’s Zach Frazier, who is a former four-time state heavyweight wrestling champion, and Kansas State’s Cooper Beebe, who is reportedly among the top-30 visits the Eagles have arranged.

The question is: Does it make sense to spend pick No. 22 on an interior offensive lineman?

Whatever the Eagles decide to do, Sirianni has every right to like the players returning.

“We have Landon (Dickerson), Lane (Johnson), two guys who are Pro Bowlers and have been for the last couple years now and Lane’s been for a long time,” said the coach. “Jordan Mailata has played a lot of good football, Cam Jurgens got a lot of good minutes last year and we’ll see how the rest of it plays out.”

Another question: Who makes up for the loss of leadership Kelce and defensive tackle Fletcher Cox leave behind?

“Leadership is going to be really important, especially when you lose two guys like Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox, who I can’t say enough good things about,” said Sirianni. “The style of play that they brought for so long, and also the leadership they brought. But leadership is going to be important.

Jalen (Hurts) is going to have to have more with Jason stepping out. Landon is going to have to have more. Jordan Mailata is going to have to have more. It’s going to take a lot of guys to fill the void of leadership on the offensive side of the ball that Jason Kelce provided…the leadership has to come from somewhere.”