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Everyone knows Landon Dickerson will be the starting left guard in Week 1. The Philadelphia Eagles have gone out of their way to hype up the new Berlin Wall on the left side of their rebuilt offensive line. Which remains dominant.
And Dickerson is one of the poster boys. So, to hear the 23-year-old tell reporters that he wasn’t guaranteed a starting spot in 2022 was a little weird.
“I wouldn’t say I’m entrenched,” Dickerson said. “There’s a lot of good guys in that room, that we’re all competing against each other, trying to make each other better. We still have a lot of time until the first game [Week 1, September 11] so you never know what’s going to happen with the lineup, who’s going to be playing, so I’m just trying to get better every day no matter where they put me.”
Dickerson, of course, was toeing the company line that there’s competition at every position. Competition is one of Nick Sirianni’s five core principles. But the reality is there is no one more entrenched than Dickerson at left guard after getting a major public endorsement from Howie Roseman. He and left tackle Jordan Mailata are best friends with benefits – punishing, attacking, down-hill blocking ones.
“For us, going through the season and seeing Landon and Jordan next to each other, I mean, that’s imposing,” Roseman said. “We felt like the chemistry that they had developed going forward and how young those guys are, just developing that left side. And we’ve seen something like that when we played really well when we had Brandon [Brooks] and Lane [Johnson].”
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Budding Bromance Between Dickerson & Mailata
When Mailata addressed the media on May 11, he revealed a budding “bromance” brewing between himself and Dickerson. It makes sense. Only two years separate them in age: Mailata is 25; Dickerson is 23. They both come from the deep (and deeper) south: Mailata from Australia; Dickerson from North Carolina.
And the two share a similar love-hate relationship with golf. Maybe these two need their own reality show.
“If it’s not eating, we’re golfing. If it’s not golfing, it’s bowling,” Mailata said. “If it’s not bowling, shoot, I don’t know what else. If anybody has any suggestions of what we should do, let me know.”
Dickerson returned the favor. The two young players genuinely enjoy each other’s company, a quality that has helped them mesh well on the field as well.
“We’ve become good friends and we play alongside each other,” Dickerson said, “but it doesn’t always have to be that way. We just have personalities that mesh really well. We like to hang out.”
Standard is High: Lotta Things to Improve
Mailata went on a long rant the other day about how high the standard is in the Eagles’ offensive line room. Obviously. They are printing Pro Bowl blockers faster than a mint. Thanks, Jeff Stoutland.
Meanwhile, Dickerson got dead serious when trying to grade how he and Mailata performed as a tandem on the left side. He clearly didn’t think it was good enough, or up to the high standard in that room.
“I felt like we had good moments and bad moments,” Dickerson said. “There’s a lot of stuff that we have to improve on, lot of things to work on, lot of things to get better at. We have a good foundation, me and him, or really any guy in that room … but we all have things to work on, so it’s all about just continuing to get better each day we’re here, each week we’re here.”
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