On Tuesday afternoon, news broke that Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is reportedly facing a 10-game suspension (see story).
To underreact: this would be bad for the Eagles.
Johnson, 26, was their best and most consistent offensive lineman last year and this offseason they paid him like the left tackle of the future. If he's suspended, he won't even be the right tackle of the present.
So what's the plan if Johnson misses 10 games? Well, here's a look:
Right now the offensive line (if healthy) looks like this, from left to right: Jason Peters, Allen Barbre, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, Johnson.
The most obvious and easiest solution would be to just plug in second-team right tackle Dennis Kelly. Kelly has 15 career starts and nine have come at right tackle — two came last season.
While Kelly has been the second-team right tackle, Matt Tobin is the team's second-team left tackle. Tobin will fill in for Peters (quad) at left tackle in the first preseason game. If the team doesn't want to put Kelly at right tackle, it could slide Tobin over, or it could completely keep Tobin and Kelly off the field.
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Barbre is slated to start at left guard for the second straight year, but has eight career starts at right tackle.
So if the Eagles want, they could slide Barbre out to right tackle and bring in solid veteran Stefen Wisniewski, and his 77 career starts, in to start at left guard. This makes sense because it seems the Eagles have much better depth at guard with Wisniewski than at tackle with Tobin or Kelly.
Sure, this scenario would mean some shifting, but it might be a way to get the five best remaining offensive linemen on the field together.
Aside from Tobin, Kelly and Barbre, the team doesn't have much depth at tackle. Andrew Gardner is recovering from Lisfranc surgery (see story), but has been the third-team left tackle in practice. He won the starting right guard job out of training camp a year ago, but is probably more of a natural tackle. He's an option, but has clearly been behind Tobin and Kelly during the 2016 training camp.
Then, the team has a fifth-round pick in Halapoulivaati Vaitai, but the rookie doesn't quite seem ready for game action. Malcolm Bunche (practice squad in 2015) and undrafted Dillon Gordon don't seem like great options either.
Perhaps the team will pick someone up off the waiver wire after cuts, or try to make a trade, but there aren't a bunch of decent offensive tackles growing on trees.
The scariest thing about a Johnson suspension is the somewhat likely scenario that Peters can't stay on the field. At 34 years old, Peters isn't the player he once was, had injury trouble last year and already has a quad injury that will keep him out for the first preseason game (see Injury Update).
If he gets hurt during Johnson's suspension, the Eagles could have any combination of Tobin, Kelly, Barbre, Gardner, a rookie or someone who isn't on the team yet, blocking elite NFL pass-rushers as Sam Bradford desperately tries to stay healthy.
If that happens, what was thought to be one of the Eagles' biggest strengths in 2016, will have become their greatest weakness.
