Versatilty And Brains Have Served Eagles Backup Lineman Well In Quest For Job

He should be a lock to make the Eagles 53-man roster and celebrate his 28th birthday in style.

Eagles offensive lineman Brett Toth / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – Brett Toth is uniquely qualified to serve both his country and the Eagles.

He graduated from West Point in 2018 and, after a year of military service, received a waiver to pursue an NFL career. Six years later, that pursuit continues, and he may finally be tracking down a valuable position as a do-everything offensive lineman after being released six times by three teams since arriving in the league in 2019 as an undrafted free agent of the Eagles.

In between being released, he has played in 29 games, with two starts, including 17 games with one of those starts coming in Philly.

Not many are qualified to play everywhere on an offensive line and play those positions well. Toth is, and with his ability to be a backup center, backup guard, and backup tackle should make him one of the locks to make the 53-man roster.

“It’s very difficult,” he said about the challenges of playing all five. “My favorite one is the one Stout asks me to do.”

Stout, of course, is offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.

“He has a good saying, a Brue Lee cliché, but 10,000 kicks,” said Toth about Stout. “He always talks about Lane (Johnson) in pass setting, he’s had 10,000 kicks. When you’re playing all five, you’re getting one-fifth of the reps at each position, so it’s hard. You have to cross-train it to where certain blocks at tackle can kind of correspond to certain blocks at center. Just trying to get reps at other positions and grouping them together.”

If anybody can figure that out, it’s someone with a degree in nuclear engineering.

Along his journey, Toth had to overcome a torn ACL two years ago, leading to a stint lengthy stint on the PUP list in Carolina last year.

“When you’re away from ball for two years, you’re not used to the hurting,” he said. “Your body isn’t under the same exact load, so whenever you come back there’s definitely going to be a shock period. I definitely felt that last year during camp.

“You’re out there and you feel 70 percent and you’re fighting as hard as you can. You get down on yourself mentally as well. So, last year was definitely difficult for me. For this year, I think the mindset, just realizing you can’t play the politics, you can’t focus on making the roster.”

Adjusting to center has also been a work in progress, especially snapping the ball consistently two years ago, when Stoutland tired him there. Now, it is seamless. It turns out the issue was easily fixed - he stopped trying to snap it like Jason Kelce.

“You can’ t try to fit your game after one of the all-time greats,” he said. “…if anyone saw the way Jason Kelce snaps, there’s a lot of heat on it. I tried changing it last year (to Kelce’s style), but it didn’t work out, and went back to the way I used to do and haven’t had any problems.”

Toth, who was poached by the Arizona Cardinals after he was cut following his first training camp five years ago, will turn 28 on Sept. 1, two days after teams have to submit their final roster.

“It’s a double-edge sword,” he said about where his birthday fall in relation to final cuts.” I don’t worry about it. My mindset has always been to do whatever the team asks of me.”

So far, Toth is doing exactly that, and his birthday should be a celebration this year, not a downer.

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