Although left guard Landon Dickerson and right tackle Lane Johnson are putting off retirement for at least another year, it would behoove the Eagles to have succession plans in place. Cognizant that Dickerson and/or Johnson could be gone by 2027, the Eagles may address the offensive line as early as the first round of April’s draft, according to Zach Berman of The Athletic.
Penn State guard Vega Ioane, among the premier prospects in this year’s class, may be a solution for the Eagles. The team hosted Ioane at its facility on Monday, Berman reports. The Eagles are set to pick 23rd overall. Ioane looks like a logical candidate for their top selection, though he could be off the board by then. With that in mind, general manager Howie Roseman might have to trade up.
Notably, Roseman has not drafted an offensive lineman in the first round since the ill-fated decision to take Andre Dillard 22nd overall in 2019. Dillard, a former tackle, made just nine starts in three years with the Eagles.
While Dillard was an obvious misfire, Roseman was at the helm for the eminently successful selections of the Eagles’ current starting line. Dickerson (second round, 2021), Johnson (first round, 2013), left tackle Jordan Mailata (seventh round, 2018) and center Cam Jurgens (second round, 2022) have all been hits. Roseman also spent a 2023 third-rounder on right guard Tyler Steen, a 17-game starter last year.
If Ioane ends up in Philadelphia, he could either push Steen for a starting job or begin as depth behind him and Dickerson. Although Dickerson is just 27, the three-time Pro Bowler has grown weary of a long line of injuries and surgeries dating to his college career. The Eagles removed a year from Dickerson’s contract earlier this month, giving them two more seasons of control. Dickerson may not last that long, though, given how seriously he considered retirement this winter.
A potential long-term successor to Dickerson, the 6-foot-4, 330-pound Ioane was a full-time starter at left guard for the past two years. After earning a second-team All-Big Ten nod in 2024, Ioane took home first-team all-conference and first-team All-America honors last season. He went back-to-back years without allowing a sack, per Pro Football Focus. In ranking Ioane the 13th-best prospect in the 2026 class, Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com contends that he will “be an impact starter from Day 1.” Perhaps that prediction will come true in Philadelphia.
Lane Johnson was drafted in the 1st round of 2013, not 2023.
If only…
I guess we are trading up then because ain’t no way in hell he is there at 23
Agreed. But as a Cowboys fan, I’m gonna still be depressed when Kaydn Proctor falls into the Eagles’ lap.
Just as I’ll be annoyed when you guys get lucky and Styles falls to you.
As a cowboys fan too, the eagles are sitting on picks 23,54,68,98 and 114. He won’t be there at 23 for sure, but with Howie’s history of wheeling and dealing, he has the draft capital to move up and trade for him
Chip Kelly drafted Lane Johnson, and Joe Douglas was responsible for the Eagles drafting both Mailata and Dillard.
Dillard also was only a nine game starter because Mailata took his spot. He held his own okay as a rookie before going down with an injury in his second year.
Dickerson I’ll give you, though I doubt he’d have been drafted if Sirianni wasn’t here. Howie has always seemed to me like somebody who just makes the moves his coaches want him to make.
@notimportant
Normally we seem pretty aligned on the Eagles but i don’t agree with the Howie take here. He’s had his miscues sure, (I’ll never forgive him for Raegor over Jefferson) but he’s been incredibly solid at the draft and one of the best in the league if not the best at everything else that a GM is supposed to do. If you told me hey your teams gm is going to be average at drafting and his hits will be the work of others, but everything else he does he’s the best in the league at, I’m signing up for that everyday.
I feel like you’re forgetting A LOT of his draft history.
He’s had way more misses and really boneheaded choices than he has good ones. This string of good choices early in the draft and good moves in general is very recent.
But as I said, I don’t feel and will never feel that Howie is a true GM. He’s always been a cap guy and a guy who figures out how to make it possible to get the players a coach tells him to.
It’s really no coincidence that the Eagles have suddenly valued offensive linemen and RBs with Sirianni here or that they suddenly started caring about getting and keeping a young defensive core and especially about linebackers when they got two very strong willed DCs one after the other.
Howie is a holdover from the Reid years. He is always somebody who looks for the cheapest way to do something as long as the coach is okay with it, and he’s obsessed with “value” over everything else.
As much as we want to give him credit for the Carter, Davis, Dickerson, Campbell etc picks let’s not forget that most of those guys fell to us due to questions over health or effort or whatever else and that we basically lucked into them. I do however give him credit for making locking up our young players the priority because that is an entirely new development.
I don’t hold him responsible for Reagor, either. Pederson wanted us to get speedy WRs, and Reagor was by far the best player for his screen and gadget based offense. He would have stayed an Eagle for years if he hadn’t gone down during his rookie year and lost his gadget guy role to Quez Watkins. Reagor was and is talented but he’s just never been a true WR and might never be. He’s a guy who can run back punts and kicks for TDs though and be an effective gadget player. He just hasn’t been used that way.
I’m not up or down on Howie because I know he’s not actually the one making the decisions other than being the guy who figures out how it’s possible to get or keep the player(s) his coaches want.
I guess he isn’t interested in blocking for Aaron Rodgers 🙂
The only block on Rodgers is the one on his neck.