Over the next few weeks leading up to training camp, we’ll be counting down the top 25 most important Eagles for the 2024 season.
25. Brandon Graham
24. Nakobe Dean
23. Milton Williams
22. Jake Elliott
21. Nolan Smith
20. Cooper DeJean
19. Reed Blankenship
18. Tyler Steen
17. Devin White
16. Quinyon Mitchell
15. Jordan Davis
14. Landon Dickerson
Is there anything more Landon Dickerson becoming the highest-paid guard in NFL history and just wanting to get a new lawnmower?
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Probably not.
But that exactly what Dickerson did after signing a four-year, $84 million contract extension this offseason.
Dickerson’s extension, worth a record $21 million per season, will keep him under contract with the Eagles through the 2028 season. He’s one of several veterans to be extended this offseason.
NFL
The Eagles drafted Dickerson in the second round back in 2021 and he was set to enter the final year of his contract in 2024. The Eagles got ahead of it when they signed Dickerson to this extension in early March. Not only is it the Eagles’ style to get these deals done early, but Dickerson has been exactly what the Eagles were hoping he’d be when they took a risk in the second round in 2021.
This offseason was the first time Dickerson was eligible for a contract extension and the Eagles didn’t hesitate to give him that big deal.
In his three seasons in the NFL, Dickerson has started 46 games and has found a home at left guard next to his best friend Jordan Mailata, who is also under contract through 2028 after an extension of his own this offseason.
Dickerson, 25, has been the full-time starter at left guard the last two seasons and has been named a Pro Bowler in each of those seasons. While Dickerson is notoriously hard on himself, the Pro Bowl voters see the player he’s been. And by paying him top-of-the-market money, the Eagles see the player they think Dickerson can become.
Because even though he’s been a Pro Bowler, Dickerson still isn’t the best guard in the NFL, although the list of players above him gets shorter every season.
And the Eagles have been pretty good at forecasting with Dickerson. The only reason he was available where they took him at No. 37 out of Alabama in 2021 is because of his laundry list of injuries in college.
Dickerson was completely healthy for just one of his five college seasons at Florida State and Alabama:
2016: Played 7 games. Season-ending ACL injury (right knee) at FSU
2017: Played 4 games. Season-ending ankle injury (right ankle) at FSU
2018: Played 2 games. Had severe ankle sprain (left ankle) at FSU
2019: Played and started 13 games at Alabama
2020: Played 12 games. Tore ACL in SEC Championship Game (left knee) at Alabama
At the time, the pick was a bit of a gamble. It brought up the memory of drafting cornerback Sidney Jones, who fell into the second round back in 2017.
But the Eagles trusted their medical staff and ended up nailing it. While he’s had a few bumps and bruises along the way the last few years, Dickerson has avoided major injury.
“I think for us, you want to take some chances,” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said after drafting Dickerson in 2021. “You want to be aggressive on talent at times but you also have to weigh that with other factors, and I think when you talk about Sidney (Jones), he wants to be a really good player. Unfortunately when you look at what happened this training camp, we didn't have a much — as much opportunity to evaluate him as we would have liked to."
In 2023, Dickerson ranked as ProFootballFocus’s 17th overall guard. He gave up 5 sacks but just a total of 38 pressures in 17 games.
There will be even more on Dickerson’s plate in 2024 after the retirement of Jason Kelce. The Eagles are obviously going to miss Kelce and because of Cam Jurgens’ move inside, they’re going to have a new right guard too. That puts more pressure on Dickerson to solidify the middle of the Eagles’ offensive line.
Based on his first three years in the NFL, he’ll be up for that challenge.
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