When Dylan McMahon arrived to the NovaCare Complex last Thursday, he wandered into the Eagles’ weight room to meet up with general manager Howie Roseman, who promptly introduced him to Jason Kelce.
Kelce looked at McMahon and said, “Undersized center?”
Yep. Undersized center. Athletic prospect. Sixth-round draft pick.
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Sound familiar?
While the Eagles think they have their center of the future in Cam Jurgens, they still selected McMahon in the sixth-round out of NC State in the 2024 Draft.
And the comparisons of McMahon to Kelce have been pretty unavoidable. Even though Kelce’s post-football life figures to be pretty busy — Kelce is reportedly joining ESPN’s Monday Night Football pre-game coverage — he is still willing to carve out some time to help the Eagles’ newest sixth-round center prospect.
“We have that in common,” McMahon said. “And just talked a little bit about football and the guys I’ll be facing regularly in our division. He said just make sure you’re staying in the weight room. You can put good weight on you with your frame and your body. There’s places to put good weight on, weight and muscle.
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“Just wished me good luck. Like I said, it was pretty surreal meeting him. He said he hopes to help me out in anyway he can. So that will be pretty cool.”
The Eagles had their rookie minicamp this past weekend so it was the first chance for McMahon (6-3, 299) to get a taste of life in the NFL. But it was pretty cool for him to meet Kelce the day before it started.
Because for McMahon, there’s no one better to look up to than Kelce. The recently retired Eagles legend is the perfect role model for a generation of undersized and athletic centers. And now McMahon will get to learn directly from Kelce … at least here and there.
“I don’t want to bug him. I’d do it every day if I could,” McMahon said. “But he’s got his own stuff going around. He gave me his number. If I ever have a question or anything, I may just hit him up. If he doesn’t reply, because I know he’s got a lot of stuff going on, hopefully he will eventually. As much as I can without bugging him, for sure.”
Most of McMahon’s lessons will come from offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who is a legend in his own right. But it’s pretty cool to have Kelce a phone call or text away.
Of course, McMahon has been learning from Kelce long before their meeting last week. When Kelce was drafted back in the sixth round of 2011, there weren’t nearly as many examples of smaller centers succeeding in the NFL. Now, it seems like every time an undersized center is drafted, the first guy mentioned is always Kelce.
So it’s no surprise that McMahon has been studying Kelce’s tape for years and there’s one big takeaway from it.
“I would just say the leverage,” McMahon said. “I would say the size is a big comparison. Just the leverage he plays with in the game being an undersized guy is something I want to take to my game as well. I tend to sometimes play a little high. Just being able to take that leverage he uses and distribute it to my game I think will be a huge bonus in my game.”
Back in 2011, the Eagles took Kelce with the 191st overall pick. McMahon this year was pick No. 190.
McMahon said that beyond being able to learn from Kelce, it’s comforting to see Kelce’s success as a late-round draft pick. Maybe it’s still somewhat unlikely that McMahon will succeed in the NFL but plenty of Day 3 guys have done it before.
One former late-round pick in particular will be watching closely.
“Of course I’m excited to see what this kid does,” Kelce said on the New Heights podcast. “And I’m sure Stout’s excited about having some new guys in the room and some fresh young guys to really try and mold. I always love when the new guys come in. I mean, let’s be honest. No sixth-round center’s making it. Especially not Eagles’ ones.”
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