5 Huge decisions that helped save the Philadelphia Eagles season

1. The Philadelphia Eagles make minor changes to their O-line and safety rotation.

It’s good to see the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line clicking again. Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson, when they’re clicking, can bring back memories of the days of Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan if you’re not careful.

Philly’s run game took off once they committed to it (more on that in a second). It was good to see the signal-callers stay vertical more often than not. It was a far cry from what we saw in 2020.

There were injuries, The Eagles lost Brandon Brooks, Isaac Seumalo, and Jack Driscoll for the season. Driscoll, who has now ended both of his NFL seasons on the injured reserve, saw his absence lead to Philly’s decision to add Landon Dickerson to the starting lineup as a right guard once he was healthy enough to go.

That led to mixed results, and Philly, through a chain of events would eventually move Dickerson over to the left side, between Mailata and Jason Kelce. Voila! We were cooking!

It doesn’t sound like a major move, but it worked, as did a dedication to a three-man safety rotation in which Rodney McLeod, Anthony Harris, and Marcus Epps split snaps at times and shared the field at others. Again, a minor adjustment worked, and it brought out the best in each player.

Say what you want about Jonathan Gannon but his trio of safeties had great years as did Avonte Maddox and Darius Slay. It will be interesting to see what happens as we transition into the offseason. Epps is signed through 2022, but McLeod and Harris are both at the end of their current deals.