Sub-radar Eagles who will exceed expectations during this playoff push

Eagles offensive lineman Nate Herbig

Once upon a time, whenever you’d settle in to watch a football game and one of the linemen were flagged, you’d often hear the announcers say ‘we never mention these guys until they do something wrong’ (or something to that effect).

Without even reading another line you know where this is headed right?

Nate Herbig has had his name called a lot during the past two Eagles games, and often it was for bad reasons. He’s grounded a few snaps in relief of Jason Kelce. He had a catastrophic holding penalty that erased a Boston Scott touchdown versus the New York Giants.

At the earlier stages of his career, was simply the other Stanford guy that the Eagles had on the team. There was the legend, Zach Ertz. There was the bust, JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

Sure, you knew Herbig was there, but he was more like the fire extinguisher sitting in the hallway at your office. He’s there in case of emergency, but you hope you never have to break the glass.

Well, we’re approaching dire straights in Philadelphia along the offensive front. We aren’t there yet, but we’re close. Isaac Seumalo won’t be seen until next season. We may never see Brandon Brooks in an Eagles jersey again. Jack Driscoll has been lost for the season. That means Herbig is in the spotlight, but if Kelce was to get hurt again, Herbig will, again, be your starting center.

Here’s someone that needs to step up. Kelce believes in him. That’s good enough for us, and again, he went to Stanford. In other words, we know he’s capable of figuring all of this out.