Eagles Tackle Duo Ranked No. 4 in NFL Heading Into 2026, But the Bigger Story Is What Changes Up Front

Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson are still one of the best tackle tandems in football. That’s the verdict from Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano, who slotted the Philadelphia Eagles’ bookend pair fourth among NFL tackle duos heading into the 2026 season, behind Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Denver’s pairings and just ahead of the group in San Francisco.

It’s a respectable ranking for a line that spent most of last season banged up. It’s also a reminder that Philadelphia is entering a season with more moving parts up front than at any point in the Jeff Stoutland era.

Why the Eagles’ Tackle Duo Still Cracked the Top Five

Manzano’s case for Mailata and Johnson leans heavily on what each player showed when healthy. Johnson turned 36 in May and missed the final eight games of 2025 with a Lisfranc injury to his foot, an injury that typically affects the midfoot joints that stabilize push-off power — serious business for a lineman who has to reset his feet dozens of times a game. But in the 10 games Johnson did play, Manzano argued he remained one of the more effective right tackles in the league.

Mailata is the more straightforward case. The Eagles’ left tackle since 2020 didn’t miss a start in 2025, and Pro Football Focus charged him with allowing just two sacks across 972 snaps, according to Manzano’s SI piece. That kind of pass-protection number from a left tackle — the player usually tasked with blocking a defense’s best edge rusher — is what kept Philadelphia’s ranking from dropping further despite Johnson’s absence.

The two have been part of an Eagles line that has reached two Super Bowls and won one. That track record is part of why SI still rates them ahead of pairs like the Chargers’ Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, or the Jets’ Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou, both of whom Manzano said he considered for the list but ultimately left off.

A Different Voice Coaching the Line

What makes 2026 unusual for Philadelphia isn’t just Johnson’s health. It’s who’s coaching him. Stoutland left the organization in February after 13 seasons, a run that included two Super Bowl appearances and at least one Pro Bowler on his line every single year. His replacement is Chris Kuper, a 43-year-old former Denver Broncos guard who spent the previous four seasons as Minnesota’s offensive line coach.

Kuper inherits a group that, on paper, still looks like one of the league’s better units — Mailata, three-time Pro Bowl guard Landon Dickerson, two-time Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens and Johnson. But he’s also the first position coach any of the five projected starters have had in the NFL, aside from backup Fred Johnson and lineman John Ojukwu. That’s a real adjustment, and Kuper has said as much directly.

“I think the right way to do it is to adjust to your players,” Kuper said, per NBC Sports Philadelphia. “We’re teachers. Football coaches, that’s what the title says. But you’re really a teacher, and you’re trying to find every way to hit every individual player the right way to get them to learn it.”

The scheme is changing too. Philadelphia is expected to shift from the inside zone concepts that defined the Stoutland years toward a wide zone blocking scheme, the same family of concepts new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion played and coached under in Minnesota. Wide zone blocking asks linemen to work in tandem laterally before climbing to the second level, rather than firing straight ahead — a scheme built to stretch a defense sideways and open cutback lanes, according to Inside The Birds. It’s a system built around athleticism up front, which plays to a line that still has plenty of it even at 36.

What Johnson Says Changes for Him

Johnson has been candid about one specific benefit of the new approach: more help. For most of his 13-year career, he’s operated on an island at right tackle, matched one-on-one against the league’s best edge rushers with little scheme-designed support.

“I’ve never had any guard help all of these years,” Johnson said this spring, per Inside The Birds. “It’s always been one-on-one. So having the ability, if I get beat inside — having a guard come out and help me is a big deal for me.”

That’s a notable admission from a six-time All-Pro who has built his reputation on winning those one-on-one reps. If Kuper’s system genuinely gives him more support underneath, it could offset some of the decline that comes with age and a foot injury that cost him half a season.

The Injury Question Isn’t Fully Settled

Johnson’s return for 2026 was never seriously in doubt on the football side — he told The Philadelphia Inquirer in February he’d be back — but there was a real stretch this offseason where his path forward wasn’t obvious. Stoutland’s departure reportedly left Johnson weighing his options, according to the Inquirer, before he met with Mannion and Kuper and came away energized about the offensive direction.

Financially, there was never much mystery. Johnson is owed $41.7 million in cash in 2026, and if he plays out his current deal through 2028, he’d finish his career with roughly $263.2 million in earnings, according to Spotrac figures cited by PhillyVoice.

The lingering uncertainty is more about health than commitment. Johnson avoided surgery on the Lisfranc injury, but the foot never fully healed last season. He’s continued rehabbing since, and people close to the situation have described him as trending toward full strength, though the Eagles haven’t put a firm timeline on when that happens in padded practices.

Numbers per Pro Football Focus and Spotrac, as cited in Sports Illustrated’s rankings.

What It Means Going Forward

None of this guarantees the Eagles climb SI’s rankings next year. A wide zone install takes time, and asking 30-something tackles to learn new footwork and new terminology in the same offseason is a legitimate risk, not just a talking point. But if Kuper’s system delivers the kind of guard help Johnson says he’s never had, and if the injury issues that plagued Dickerson and Jurgens last season don’t repeat, Philadelphia’s line has a real path back toward the top of these lists rather than just hanging on to a top-five spot on reputation.

For now, the fourth-ranked duo tag is a fair reflection of where things stand: proven, aging, well-compensated, and about to be tested by more scheme change than either player has faced in years.