The Philadelphia Eagles will open with a pair of guards from Alabama against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Landon Dickerson has been at the left guard spot for Philadelphia since his rookie year in 2021 and has earned Pro Bowl recognition in the spot the past two seasons.
At right guard, Tyler Steen will make the second start of his NFL career and first of the 2024 season. Steen played 51 of the Eagles’ 66 offensive snaps in Sunday’s 28-3 victory over the New York Giants when Mekhi Becton went out with a concussion. Becton did not practice this week and won’t play against Cincinnati.
Steen also played 58 snaps in relief of Becton in a 15-12 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 22.
“It takes a lot of mental toughness to not know when your number is going to be called but be ready,” Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said. “It speaks to Tyler and his mental toughness and his ability to prepare and prep. I admire how he played under those circumstances, and he did a lot of good things to help us win that game.”
With Steen at right guard, the Eagles will have their fourth starting offensive-line combination in seven games this season. Left tackle Jordan Mailata is on injured reserve because of a hamstring issue, and Fred Johnson filled his spot against the Giants. Johnson also started at right tackle when Lane Johnson missed the fourth game of the season because of a concussion.
“From Day 1, the emphasis in the offensive-line room is, regardless if you are a starter on that day or not, that you will prepare like a starter,” Dickerson said. “You will practice like a starter, treat everything you do as if you were starting. And that’s just the standard that we’ve set from Day 1, so that you know that when a guy goes down or gets hurt and the next guy comes in, you have trust and faith in them because offensive line, it takes all five guys there being on the same page, knowing how that guy beside you is playing and what his thought process is, so from Day 1, that’s just kind of the mindset going in. And it helps you see kind of how it’s gone this season with guys going down, getting injured, guys having to step in.”
Despite the changes in the line, Philadelphia ran for 269 yards against New York. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw only 14 passes, and he scored two touchdowns on quarterback sneaks. The rushing total was the most for Philadelphia since it ran up 363 yards in a 40-33 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 27, 2022.
“Sunday we ran the ball OK,” Dickerson said. “I’ll be honest, we’re looking at numbers. There’s efficiency of things, it could have been better. There were some goals we didn’t meet in the run game there, looking at it from that perspective. But overall, kind of like I said last week, it’s little changes that it might not necessarily be flashy or be like something you can write an article about, but it’s the little stuff that we do in each meeting, in each practice, in each workout, in each walkthrough that help us to clean things up and get a little better.
“And I think for us, the run game this past weekend was a good thing that we were able to lean on and win us the game. And at the end of the day, it comes down to whatever we have to do on Sunday to win the game, whether it’s running the ball, throwing the ball, combination of both. But you saw last Sunday that for us, we had a lot of success running the ball, and that’s how we were able to win.”
The Eagles and the Bengals will square off at noon CDT Sunday at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. Alabama’s CBS TV affiliates are scheduled to televise the game.
After winning their past two games, the Bengals are 3-4. Philadelphia also has won its past two games to get to 4-2.
Dickerson said the Eagles have progressed since they started the season with a 34-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 6 in Brazil.
“I would say significantly better,” Dickerson said. “And like I said, you may not be able to see it, but the little steps we’ve been taking and the little fixes along the way. And the mindset is we’re not done just because defense played extremely good and then offense had a good run day. I mean, there’s a lot of things left to clean up and work on, so again, it’s just fixing those little things day in and day out and keep getting better all year.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
