Underrated Isaac Seumalo "Quietly" Having Another Super Season

The veteran RG is one of a number of Eagles who has had a career year en route to Super Bowl LVII

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles’ offensive line is not only the best in the NFL, it’s also antithetical to the stereotype of what the big guys up front are supposed to be.

The skill-position players are earmarked to be stars and while Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown are certainly that for the NFC Champions, the real headliners are tucked away in the back right corner of the locker room.

Jeff Stoutland University’s best students are The Rolling Stones of the Eagles’ universe right down to the No. 1 album.

All-Pro center Jason Kelce is so popular the joke is he could be the Mayor of Philadelphia (something he wants no part of by the way), especially after his younger brother Travis took aim at hapless Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval for some weak trash talk before Kansas City topped the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game.

All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson is in the midst of a pass-protection run that has his legacy pointed toward Canton while the left side of the line gestures about 700 pounds of pushing power in the form of the uber-talented Jordan Mailata and the country-strong Landon Dickerson, a pair whose restaurant of choice has to be IHOP because they are always serving pancakes.

The one offensive lineman’s offensive lineman is right guard Isaac Seumalo, who seems to crave anonymity.

"I keep telling him he needs to start a podcast and he'll start making the Pro Bowl,” Jason Kelce said. “It would be great for him.”

The Kelce Brothers, who will be the first siblings to square off in the Super Bowl, host the widely popular “New Heights Podcast,” which much like the Christmas Album on Spotify featuring Jason, Johnson, and Mailata has reached No. 1 in the sports category on the Apple Podcasts chart.

In many ways, Seumalo, who declined comment for this piece, is the yin to Kelce’s yang.

“He doesn't talk as much as I do which is good because when he does speak you realize how important it is and it comes with more meaning,” Kelce said.

“If we had two people talking as much as I did nothing would get done, so it really helps having his personality for me quite frankly and my own psyche and I think a lot of guys feel that way."

There are two things Stoutland and those who play with Seumalo immediately bring up when talking about the veteran – smarts and versatility.

“He's a guy who can play any position up front,” Kelce said. “That one year (Seumalo’s rookie season of 2016) he played tight end, tackle, guard, and center. He's incredibly smart. He's incredibly physically gifted. I think sometimes he's so smart that he doesn't get credit for the physical capabilities that he has which is tremendous.”

In 2021, Seumalo was primed for a big season at left guard when he suffered a very serious Lisfranc injury in Week 3, one that required two surgeries, the first to put hardware in and the second to take the hardware out.

“He had a catastrophic injury last year,” said Kelce. “I remember being very emotional about it because I know the severity of that injury.”

While Seumalo was going through a very difficult rehab, Dickerson, a rookie out of Alabama in 2021, seized the LG spot, forming an imposing tandem with Mailata that the Eagles didn’t want to mess with.

That had some wondering if Seumalo was a potential salary-cap casualty this summer but when training camp opened, Seumalo was medically cleared and handed the RG spot at the recommendation of Stoutland, who has earned a wide berth with his fiefdom.

The results were impressive with Seumalo being graded out as the ninth-best OG in the NFL by Pro Football Focus this season before baking named a Pro Bowl alternate.

At 29, Seumalo is set to become a free agent after the season and PFF has projected that he could command three years and $33 million ($11M per year) with $22 million of that guaranteed.

Imagine if he had that podcast.

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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen