Eagles shouldn't ignore possibilities of adding a center in free agency if Kelce retires

Call it the mad scientist's gene or blame it on too many years of playing Fantasy football and/or the EA Sports Madden NFL game on Ultimate Team mode. Maybe it's the result of seeing the Philadelphia Eagles season end with a thud and knowing the pain of that is still fresh. Maybe it's all of those things. Maybe we just have too much time on our hands.

Maybe we would be better suited to exert this newfound energy by writing about the upcoming NFL Scouting Combine. We didn't, at least not today. We did what some of you did. We found ourselves thinking about the holes in Philly's roster, both current and impending, and we began daydreaming about guys we'd like to see in an Eagles jersey even if we know some of those additions will never happen.

You'll never believe this, but some of those off-the-wall fantasies included a center. As WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle will say "It's true! It's true!". If we haven't turned you off already, hang out with us for a few ticks.

Doing some homework on Vic Fangio's defense didn't work out to well as the Dolphin's offense began capturing our attention.

Okay, so this is how this started. We were thinking about writing a story discussing free agents with ties to Vic Fangio. Be on the lookout for that one on the Inside The Iggles platform soon. But, in doing so, we started watching Miami Dolphins games from last season.

As you probably guessed, short attention spans worked against us. Instead of studying Miami's defense and what Fangio was doing, we found ourselves watching that high-powered offense.

You guessed it! A trip down the rabbit hole followed. We ventured from 'offense sells tickets, and defense wins championships' to 'you don't really need a great defense to win a Super Bowl, only a decent one'. Just like that, two thoughts crossed our minds. 'Teams win in the trenches' and 'the Eagles' build in the trenches.

Voila! We were back to discussing potential plans about what Philly might do if Jason Kelce retires. That's when a question crossed our minds.

What if the Eagles threw their line in free agency's pool and went looking for a center?

We realize, despite being a part of the same organization last season, that Vic Fangio never coached Connor Williams. Buckle up though. This youngster is fascinating. Watch him play, and you'll see what we mean.

Williams is six-foot-five and tips the scales at 312 pounds. If Philly's interested in going with the boulder over the undersized center that they've grown accustomed to fielding, he's a nice option. There's one flaw in this theory though. Why in the hell would the Eagles make this move?

First things first. Sure, arguments can be made that we'd rather have Jason Kelce return which is true. Some will also state that, if he retires, Philly already has two guys on the roster that could replace him (Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens). That is also true.

Here's what we fail to mention sometimes. Jeff Stoutland would rather alter one position than two.

Sliding a two-time Pro Bowler Dickerson over from left guard to center seems like a bad idea. We like the idea of moving Cam better. The Birds have Tyler Steen waiting in the wings (pun intended) to take over, but following this plan still alters last season's center and right guard positions. Philly would probably never do this, and for good reason, but adding Connor Williams rocks.

We can't think of a better free-agent option at the center position if the G.O.A.T. hangs the cleats up. Williams would also be less expensive than Jason. Hey! It's worth mulling over. The Eagles shouldn't rule anything out, and they should turn over every rock in roster building.

So, while this seems like an outlandish idea, it's also one we'd recommend exploring. Then again, Howie Roseman hasn't returned any of our calls after we left a few messages to pass our ideas along.

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