In high school, my offensive line coach’s favorite t-shirt read “Without Linemen, You’re Just Playing Catch.” While he may have been biased, he wasn’t wrong.
Linemen are the unseen, sturdy foundation of a football team. They maybe sacrifice the most of any player. At an average weight of 315 pounds, they have the highest rates of heart disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy of any position. Yet, linemen are the backbone of every NFL team and deserve recognition.
While the NFL is a quarterback-driven league, if Trevor Lawrence is the second highest-paid player, teams need to seriously reconsider how they are spending their money. In fact, the five highest-paid quarterbacks went 29-32 in the 2024 season while being paid over $275 million. The Philidelphia Eagles’ investment in top-tier linemen to support their other stars proved successful.
Behind his line this past regular season, running back Saquon Barkley became just the ninth player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards. On the other side of the field, the Eagles’ defensive line tore through offensive lines, giving up only 17.8 points per game — the second-best in the NFL in 2024. This trend continued over the course of the season and through Super Bowl 59, where linemen were the clear difference makers.
From the very first drive of the game, Philadelphia’s defensive linemen swarmed Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. When the dust settled in the fourth quarter, they had collected a total of six sacks on the day and forced a fumble. Their consistent pressure forced Mahomes to throw two uncharacteristic interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.
They accomplished this feat without a single blitz. This allowed their secondary to completely shut down the Chiefs’ mediocre receiving corps with ease. From the start, the Chiefs’ offense looked panicked and agitated, unable to answer the relentless Eagles defense line. No matter the talent of a quarterback, their kryptonite will always be their defense.
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles’ offensive line was impenetrable. With ample time to throw, quarterback Jalen Hurts tossed two touchdown passes, including a 46-yard bomb to speedster Devonta Smith. Hurts was sacked a mere two times over the course of a game where the Eagles had the ball for a remarkable 37 minutes compared to the Chiefs’ 23. The lone hiccup by the Eagles’ offense, unsurprisingly, was a Hurts’ interception the one time they failed to pick up a free blitzer.
While Super Bowl 59 was underwhelming, the Eagles’ impressively clean game was entertaining to watch. With the help of his linemen, Jalen Hurts looked as though he were just playing catch as he calmly picked apart the Chiefs’ defense. Though Jalen Hurts was hardly undeserving of the Super Bowl MVP award, the performances of his offensive and defensive lines allowed him to execute on one of the biggest stages in sports with ease.
