National Football League

Chiefs, Eagles boast strong O-lines. Both were built differently

Updated Feb. 16, 2023 3:53 p.m. ET

For obvious reasons, any preview of Super Bowl LVII is going to feature the sexy names: Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes paired with his sidekick, Travis Kelce; Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts with star receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

While there's no denying these elite skill players are a big reason Kansas City and Philadelphia will face off on Sunday in Arizona (6:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App), I'm going to focus on the play of the offensive lines. How were these units built, and can your favorite team follow the format?

Building the base of a skilled offensive line will never change: Draft and develop is the preferred method to attain continued success. Adding a piece or two in free agency to supplement drafted players can have an impact as well. But before either of those things can happen, hiring the right offensive line coach is a must.

I don't have a definitive checklist of the qualities that make an outstanding offensive line coach, but I'll tell you what I've seen work. The best coaches are willing to adapt their coaching principles and techniques to the players in their room. There is not one single way to get into a stance, or run block, or pass protect. There are preferred techniques that work more often than not, but sometimes a player is better by executing a different method.

The best O-line coaches are the ones who teach not only how to get into a block but also how to finish a block. Also preferable is a coach who doesn't clutter his players with wasteful techniques or overwhelm them with too much "what if" and "CYA" nonsense. And finally, an effective coach needs to be willing to listen to his players and not just assume he's always the smartest person in the room.

As you can see, it takes a special coach to have all of those qualities. That is why there's only a handful of elite offensive line coaches in the NFL.

Top 12 players in Super Bowl LVII

Colin Cowherd starts his top 12 list with Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, followed by Eagles center Jason Kelce in the No. 3 spot.

Both the Eagles and Chiefs have such coaches. The Chiefs' Andy Heck was the first pick in the 1989 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame after playing only one college season at left tackle. After 11 seasons in the NFL, he started out coaching at Virginia before heading to the NFL. He was a highly successful offensive line coach with the Jaguars before being hired by Andy Reid in 2013.

The work Heck has done developing players like Eric Fisher, who went from a bust to a Pro Bowler, to Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who played his college ball in Canada, has been impressive. Center Mitch Morse was drafted by the Chiefs and now anchors the Bills' offensive line. Then there's my brother, Mitch Schwartz, who was a four-time All-Pro under Heck.

In Philadelphia, when Chip Kelly was hired as head coach in 2013, he promptly hired college football's best offensive line coach: Alabama's Jeff Stoutland. The Crimson Tide had just won back-to-back championships with their rushing attack and defense. Multiple Tide lineman were drafted in the first round during Stoutland's tenure, and he has since survived three coaching changes with the Eagles. That goes to show the respect he has earned in that building.

There should be a sign hung above Philadelphia's offensive line room that reads "draft and develop." The Eagles' entire starting offensive line, including all three of their backups who dress, were drafted by the team. Most of the linemen have been added during Stoutland's tenure, though All-Pro center Jason Kelce was drafted in 2011, two years before Stoutland arrived. Right tackle Lane Johnson, another All-Pro, was the Eagles' first pick under Chip Kelly. Right guard Isaac Seumalo was a third-round pick from Oregon State, with left guard Landon Dickerson being selected in the second round out of Alabama in 2021.

Stoutland's finest work has been with Philadelphia's left tackle, Jordan Mailata, who was an Australian rugby player until February 2018, when he started training for American football at IMG Academy in Florida. After scouting him at IMG, Stoutland advised the Eagles to draft Jordan in the seventh round in 2018. Five years later, he's one of the better left tackles in the NFL.

The Eagles' success is what you should strive for when building an offensive line, even if it's an outlier. Very rarely can a team draft five linemen over a 10-year period, ranging from the sixth pick in the draft to pick No. 233, and develop all five into the caliber of players they have become. The scouting department, the coaching, injury luck, scheme, salary cap and so much more has played a role in keeping this unit together for so many years.

If the Eagles' offensive line build is ideal, then study the Chiefs' line rebuild. After injuries and free agency wrecked Kansas City's Super Bowl-winning line, the Chiefs needed a quick rebuild to keep Patrick Mahomes upright. The work started shortly after Mahomes was battered and bruised by the Bucs' defensive line in Super Bowl LV. The Chiefs traded for Orlando Brown to play left tackle and signed Joe Thuney in free agency to play left guard. In the draft, the Chiefs added Creed Humphrey in the second round to play center and then selected Trey Smith in the sixth round to play right guard. In 2017, Kansas City signed Andrew Wylie as an undrafted free agent and moved him to right tackle.

Now, here's the important part about why this all worked: The Chiefs brought in linemen who fit the scheme and the techniques that Andy Heck teaches. This is an overlooked part of the equation. Heck wants his offensive linemen to be physical at the line of scrimmage in pass protection, which is how these guys are built to play. The Chiefs want to build double teams in the run game, which is how this unit is made. When the Chiefs do run zone plays, the inside three are versatile enough to handle single blocks in the zone-run scheme. Their offensive linemen are extremely bright, which is helpful for their pass protection and extremely detailed screen game. Their five guys fit the scheme.

As you can see, building an elite offensive line is an inexact science, but the methods as to how it happens are the same: an offensive line coach who can teach, a scouting department that understands what the offensive line coach needs in a lineman, a scheme that fits what these guys can do.

And then there's luck, which is always important. The Chiefs and Eagles lines have been so healthy. I'm excited to watch these groups play on Sunday.

Geoff Schwartz played eight seasons in the NFL for five different teams. He started at right tackle for the University of Oregon for three seasons and was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection his senior year. He is an NFL analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @GeoffSchwartz.

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