Eagles instantly feel Jason Kelce's absence with ugly botched snap vs Packers

Things were always going to be a little rough coming out of the gate. As it turns out, 13 years with a first ballot Hall of Famer playing basically every game as the Philadelphia Eagles' starting center is hard to replace.

In the Eagles' first game without Jason Kelce, it took exactly one drive to realize what sort of reality Eagles fans are staring at for the next 17 games.

Philly was down in Brazil for the season opener against the Green Bay Packers and it didn’t take long to realize something was different. Kelce’s absence was felt almost right away, with a few plays getting skewed thanks to not having him in the mix.

Over the span of six plays, the Eagles proceeded to: toss it to Saquon Barkley for a six yard loss, throw an interception, fumble a snap, and get called for an illegal formation. They also, very notably, didn't convert on their first Tush Push in the post-Kelce era. And surely not all of that falls on Kelce – he didn't throw it up deep to Xavier McKinney – but the Eagles' line came out of the gate sure looking like a unit that was missing their vet.

Eagles fans instantly missed Jason Kelce in the first game without him

On Twitter, Kelce's absence was, uh, glaring.

Everyone is very aware that the Eagles no longer have Jason Kelce

That last one cuts especially deep.

The good news is that the Eagles seemingly figured it out – at least somewhat – in the second quarter, getting on the board with a nice touchdown pass to Barkley. Still, after an entire summer where Kelce was on our TV screens basically every moment of every hour of every day, his absence from TV screens on Friday night was glaring. Maybe the best thing to do is just lean into the jokes?

If you're laughing, you can let the tears flow and no one will know the difference!!