Mudd trying to remake Eagles offensive line, quickly

"It's not multiple choice."

During the dog days of the NFL lockout, a little more than two months after he was named the Eagles new offensive line coach, Howard Mudd gave a 75-minute dissertation on the correct way to block.

The choices were:

a. Mudd's way.

b. Juan Castillo's way.

c. Any other coach's way.

Answer: a.

After a month of training camp, the Eagles offensive linemen are learning what a reporter found out four months prior only because the irascible Mudd didn't have any players to coach. It's either his way or, well, a place on the bench or perhaps much worse.

Mudd's way has produced some successful offensive lines over his 30-year NFL coaching career. He's made eight different stops along the way, so it's not as if he's had trouble adapting.

But Mudd had never been hired by a team coming off a playoff appearance until Andy Reid pulled him out of retirement to replace Castillo, who the Eagles head coach promoted to defensive coordinator. In six of Mudd's seven stops the teams had losing records , which is typical when teams make coaching changes .

Those were situations in which the linemen had time to learn Mudd's way. And time is not something the Eagles had because of the lockout, and time is not something Reid has if this really is the season the franchise goes "all in" for a Super Bowl.

The offensive line's problems were clearly on display in Thursday's preseason game against the Cleveland Browns, as two Mudd-picked rookies struggled to protect quarterback Michael Vick.

Mudd's way doesn't pertain entirely to blocking techniques - of which he has some unorthodox ideas. It also encompasses the 69-year-old's vision of what an offensive lineman should look like and what he should be able to do.

Mudd prefers his linemen to be athletic and, thus, on the smaller side. And so, since the draft the Eagles have added rookies Danny Watkins (6-foot-3, 310 pounds), Jason Kelce (6-3, 282), Julian Vandervelde (6-2, 300) and veterans Ryan Harris (6-5, 300) and Evan Mathis (6-5, 302). And they have bid adieu to Nick Cole (6-0, 339) and Max Jean-Gilles (6-3, 358).

Jamaal Jackson (6-4, 325), Mike McGlynn (6-4, 315) and Austin Howard (6-7, 333), meanwhile, have seemingly fallen out of favor. Mudd isn't completely dogmatic, however. The mammoth Jason Peters (6-4, 340) and Todd Herremans (6-6, 321) man left tackle and left guard, but each is among the best at his position and are athletic.

Watkins and Kelce are molded Mudders and probably wouldn't be Eagles right now if Castillo were still the offensive line coach. Castillo liked his linemen to be massive, almost blob-like figures that would form a wall around the quarterback. Mudd wants his charges to, well, charge ahead and initiate contact.

That's great for zone blocking and when the Eagles run the ball. But - news flash - the Eagles have a passing offense, and Kelce and Watkins just aren't big or seasoned enough to withstand the pass rush long enough for Vick to step up in the pocket and throw.

While Watkins is still penciled in as a starter, Kelce hasn't been given the center job ahead of Jackson, although the Eagles project the rookie to surpass the veteran a month or so into the season.

But can the Eagles wait that long for the development of either rookie? Mudd will have his say, obviously, but the buck stops with Reid, and having two rookies starting side by side may be too much for the former lineman to bear.

Adding to the tumult is an unsettled right tackle situation. Starter Winston Justice's February arthroscopic knee surgery was obviously more serious than the Eagles originally let on. He still hasn't practiced, although a return could come this week.

Would that leave him time to learn Mudd's teachings and start by Week 1? King Dunlap, not a Mudd prototype, has held down right tackle for the last two weeks and done fine. But the 6-foot-9, 330-pound tackle certainly wasn't Mudd's first choice.

That would have been Harris, signed as a free agent in early August. Harris, though, apparently has a herniated disk and is headed under the surgeon's knife. If Justice isn't ready and Dunlap is a disaster, the fail-safe plan is to move Herremans to right tackle, which is more shuffling this line doesn't need.