Landon Dickerson

Eagles Extend G Landon Dickerson

Well known for long-term O-line planning during Howie Roseman‘s second run as the team’s top decision-maker, the Eagles will make another such reinvestment. They are extending Landon Dickerson.

The Eagles are giving their Pro Bowl left guard a four-year deal, according to a team announcement. Dickerson’s rookie contract runs through 2024, with this extension running through 2028. Showing the Eagles’ commitment here, Dickerson has only been extension-eligible since January.

This is new guard-record money. Dickerson signed an $84MM deal, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, who adds the contract can max out at $87MM. The former Alabama and Florida State blocker will receive $50MM guaranteed. At $21MM per year, Dickerson is now tied to the top AAV in guard history. This surpasses Chris Lindstrom‘s $20.5MM-per-year pact, which the Falcons authorized just before last year’s legal tampering period began.

Jason Kelce‘s retirement will test the Eagles, who once had Dickerson in line as a potential center heir apparent. The team liked what it saw of Dickerson at guard as rookie, however, and he has remained there since. The Eagles drafted Jurgens in the 2022 second round and installed him as the Kelce successor. That will give the Eagles a decision to make at right guard; with Dickerson locked in, it appears LG is shored up for a while.

Dickerson, 25, has started 46 of the 47 games he has played since the Eagles drafted him 37th overall in 2021. The team had seen Isaac Seumalo struggle with injuries in 2020 and 2021, and Dickerson brought some stability as Nick Sirianni shifted to a run-heavy attack around Jalen Hurts three years ago. Dickerson has been central to the team’s run game since, with Miles Sanders and D’Andre Swift posting 1,000-yard Pro Bowl seasons in back-to-back years. Various Brotherly Shove efforts have featured pivotal Dickerson work as well.

Dickerson has proven deserving of a big-ticket contract, booking two straight Pro Bowl nods. ESPN graded Dickerson as a dominant blocker in 2022, slotting him first in run block win rate and second in pass block success. He repeated as that metric’s run-blocking leader last year. Pro Football Focus has graded Dickerson as a top-20 guard in each of the past two seasons.

The Eagles now have three O-line starters signed to veteran deals, with Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata locked in beyond 2024. Jurgens’ rookie deal also runs through 2025.

Eagles Rumors: Dickerson, Berry, Free Agents

In a pileup during the Eagles’ NFC Championship win over the 49ers, guard Landon Dickerson suffered a hyperextension of his right elbow in the fourth quarter and was forced to leave the game. After an MRI of the injury came back negative for any serious damage, it is expected that Dickerson will be able play in the Super Bowl next Sunday, according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dickerson will likely need to wear a brace on the injured elbow through practices and probably in the big game, as well. The Eagles subbed in former first-round pick Andre Dillard when Dickerson was forced to exit last week. Dillard will presumably be prepared once again, in the event that Dickerson aggravates the injury any time before the final whistle of the season.

Here are a few more rumors concerning the NFC’s Super Bowl representatives:

  • Philadelphia is expecting to make an addition to their front office after the season, according to The Athletic’s Zach Berman. Following the 2023 NFL Draft, Adam Berry is expected to be joining the team, working with the personnel and operations departments. Berry, the twin brother of Browns general manager and executive vice president of football operations Andrew Berry, is a managing director at Goldman Sachs who will be making the leap to the NFL. His brother, Andrew, has been with the Browns for six of the past seven years with a one-year stint in Philadelphia as the vice president of football operations. Berry will join his brother’s former franchise and “will be learning all facets of…football operations.”
  • Win or lose, after this weekend the Eagles will have to turn towards next season, where there’s a chance the team will look vastly different than it currently does. Starters such as defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, defensive end Brandon Graham, and center Jason Kelce all are currently destined for free agency in the offseason, and veteran right tackle Lane Johnson could be mulling the decision to hang up his cleats. McLane seemed to imply in his recent report that the likeliest scenario in which these four aren’t Eagles next season would be if they all retire. He seems to believe that, if they all desire to return to Philadelphia, the team will make it happen.

NFC East Rumors: Feliciano, Giants, Cowboys, Dickerson

New Giants’ interior offensive lineman Jon Feliciano had some interesting comments about how his time in Buffalo came to an end, according to Zack Rosenblatt of NJ.com. After not being utilized in the Bills’ overtime loss to Kansas City, Felicano was quoted saying part of him thought they “got what (they) deserved.”

After riding out his rookie contract as a reserve lineman in Oakland, Feliciano signed a two-year deal to join the Bills. Despite only starting four games for the Raiders as an injury-replacement for Kelechi Osemele, Feliciano earned a starting job playing right guard for all 16 games of his first year in Buffalo. A shoulder injury and torn pectoral muscle delayed the start of his 2020 season, but, upon his return, he started the final nine games of the season, winning the Bills’ 2020 Ed Block Courage Award.

Feliciano signed a three-year extension before the 2021 season and began the year starting six of the first seven games at left guard. A calf injury landed him on injured reserve for a little over a month, but, upon his return, he was not welcomed back to his starting job, with Ike Boettger manning the position. Even when Boettger was unavailable in the playoffs, Buffalo turned to Ryan Bates, who had recorded the first four starts of his career earlier in the season, in lieu of putting Feliciano back in the starting lineup.

With the apparent contempt over the situation in Buffalo, it’s a bit of a surprise to see Feliciano follow his offensive coordinator, now-Giants head coach Brian Daboll, and his offensive line coach, Bobby Johnson, to New York. Johnson has a lot of respect for Feliciano, who he’s coached since their time together began in Oakland. A potential draw might have been that Feliciano will get the opportunity to play center for the Giants after playing at guard dating all the way back to his college days in Miami.

Here are a few other rumors from around the NFC East, starting with another rumor about Big Blue:

  • Daboll earned his first head coaching job due to his success calling plays in Buffalo. He hired former NFL quarterback Mike Kafka as the Giants’ new offensive coordinator after Kafka served as the Chiefs quarterbacks coach & passing game coordinator the past two years. Kafka has never called plays for an offense, as Chiefs head coach Andy Reid calls plays in Kansas City, but Daboll and the G-Men have provided Kafka the opportunity to try so far in offseason practices, according to Josh Alper of NBC Sports. It’s a show of good faith by Daboll and a low-risk chance, as Daboll can easily take the reins if they don’t believe Kafka is ready for NFL play-calling yet.
  • With the Bronco’s franchise rumored to be selling around $4.5BB, Peter King of NBC Sports was curious about the value of the NFL’s most valuable franchise, the Cowboys. According to Forbes, King says $6.5BB. According to popular NFL business consultant Marc Ganis, King says $8-8.5BB. According to Cowboys’ owner/president/general manager/supreme ruler Jerry Jones, King says over $10BB. Jones quickly added without provocation, “But let me make this very clear, I’ll say it definitively: I will never do it. I will never sell the Cowboys. Ever.” So feel free to put away your checkbooks. Jerry isn’t interested.
  • When the Eagles drafted Landon Dickerson out of Alabama last year, the idea was that the Crimson Tide’s unanimous All-American center and Rimington Trophy winner would eventually serve as the replacement for long-time center Jason Kelce. Well, according to Zach Berman of The Athletic, their plans may have shifted. Dickerson proved too talented to keep off the field and found his first opportunity at playing time at left guard. The chemistry with Dickerson next to tackle Jordan Mailata has the Eagles’ brass excited and eager to keep the tandem next to each other. This plan likely informed their decision to use their second-round pick this year on Nebraska center Cam Jurgens. Jurgens also has the flexibility to play guard and center, but with Dickerson likely to stick at guard, Jurgens becomes the clear front-runner to eventually replace Kelce.

NFL COVID List Updates: 12/24/21

We’ve compiled a list of players who were placed on or activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list today. In some instances, players activated from the list remain on IR:

Baltimore Ravens

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: S Chuck Clark, C Trystan Colon
  • Activated from practice squad/COVID-19 list: RB Nate McCrary
  • Placed on practice squad/COVID-19 list: QB Chris Streveler

Buffalo Bills

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: DB Jordan Fuller, TE Tyler Higbee
  • Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: OL Cole Williamson

Miami Dolphins

  • Activated from practice squad/COVID-19 list: RB Gerrid Doaks

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: RB Travis Homer
  • Activated from practice squad/COVID-19 list: OL Pier-Olivier Lestage

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

NFL COVID List Updates: 12/20/21

A long list of players were placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. We listed the players who landed on the list today, as well as those who were activated off the list:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Las Vegas Raiders

Miami Dolphins

New England Patriots

New York Giants

New York Jets

  • Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: DE John Franklin-Myers, DB Sharrod Neasman

Philadelphia Eagles

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Eagles Activate Landon Dickerson Off NFI

A key Eagles rookie appears to be nearing his return. Second-round offensive lineman Landon Dickerson has been activated off the NFI list, the team announced Monday.

It means Dickerson should be ready to make his pro debut sooner rather than later. If he had stayed on the NFI list he would’ve had to miss the first six games of the season, which means the Eagles expect him to be ready before then. Dickerson was a star center at Alabama, and was a unanimous All-American for his work this past season. Also the winner of the Rimington Trophy for the nation’s top center, he unfortunately tore an ACL in the SEC Championship Game.

Without the ACL tear he likely would’ve been a first-round pick, but the Eagles were able to scoop him up at No. 37 because of it. Philly insisted all along that they didn’t view 2021 as a redshirt year for Dickerson, and clearly they meant it.

It’s been reported that the team initially drafted him with intention of moving him to guard, but this summer they reopened the possibility of him playing at center. They of course still have Jason Kelce at the pivot, but he’ll turn 34 in November.

Eagles Sign Second-Round OL Landon Dickerson

Just in time for training camp, the Eagles have inked the last holdout in their draft class. Philly agreed to terms with second-round offensive lineman Landon Dickerson on Monday, the team announced.

With Dickerson signing his four-year rookie deal, all nine players that the Eagles just drafted are now locked up. Dickerson, the 37th overall pick out of Alabama, was an interesting draft prospect. He was a highly decorated college player who was a unanimous All-American this past year, but unfortunately he tore an ACL in the SEC Championship Game.

The recipient of the Rimington Trophy for the nation’s top center, Dickerson likely would’ve been a first-rounder without the injury but fell to the top of the second instead. A center for Alabama, the Eagles initially “had eyes on Dickerson being a guard,” Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweets.

However, since the draft the team has “reopened the possibility of him playing center once he’s fully healthy.” It seems the Eagles believe he could be a potential successor to Jason Kelce at the pivot one day after all. Fortunately, his recovery has been going smoothly by all accounts.