Philadelphia Eagles: Analyzing Depth At Outside Linebacker

The Philadelphia Eagles are heading into the upcoming season with plenty of new faces on the team, and a more balanced defense than in years past. The secondary has been completely re-done, the inside linebackers are extremely talented, and the starting duo at outside linebacker looks dominant. The one real question however is if there’s enough depth behind the starters at outside linebacker?

The current starters at outside linebacker are Brandon Graham and Connor Barwin. Barwin and Graham both saw great success last season, as Barwin went to his first pro bowl racking up 14.5 sacks, while Graham began to see more and more of the field and turned into a playmaker as the team rewarded Graham with 4 year 26 million dollar contract this offseason. Both of these players are extremely reliable and will give the Philadelphia Eagles a very good pass rush.

More from Eagles News

The difference between this year and last year is that the team still had veteran Trent Cole on the roster. Cole split time with Graham and provided quality play and allowed the team to mix up their defensive fronts. Now that the team released Cole this past offseason, the team will now have to rely on the depth players that haven’t really had any experience. The lack of depth could be a very big problem if one of the starters were to go down with an injury for a prolonged amount of time.

The Philadelphia Eagles drafted outside linebacker Marcus Smith in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft to provide depth and turn into a future starter. However, the way Smith’s career has gone so far up to this point, there have been practically no signs of him doing that. No matter where the team has lined Smith up, his constant ineffectiveness caused him to play very little last season. Now a year later, Smith has bulked up and really studied this offseason to mold himself into that third rotation edge rusher. Whether or not the red shirt year has helped Marcus remains to be seen, but he is the teams best option going forward.

The guys behind Smith are also unproven and a bit underwhelming. Guys like Bryan Braman who is a special teams ace but nothing else, Travis Long who has some physical tools but is coming off an ACL injury, and Brandon Hepburn who is virtually unknown, might be relied on to step up and provide some depth if Marcus Smith continues to show nothing. Now the Eagles have been experimenting with hybrid guys like Emmanuel Acho and Brad Jones who both have spent time at inside linebacker and outside linebacker during these OTAs. Sure head coach Chip Kelly loves versatility, but this might be a desperate move to find almost anyone who can play OLB at this point.

The Philadelphia Eagles defense is starting to shape up into a very good group of guys, but there are depth issues at the outside linebacker spot. Things could get ugly at that position if Barwin or Graham have to miss time. The team almost needs Marcus Smith to step up and start scratching the surface of his potential, because if he continues to underwhelm, then the team will be forced to play some inexperienced players at OLB. The depth at that position is scary, and not in a good way. Where will the quality depth come from?

Next: Analyzing Sam Bradford's Impressive Mechanics

More from Inside the Iggles

Home/Eagles News