DN Agenda: Will uncertainty at tackle keep Eagles from a winning season?

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This is kind of like asking if my 1998 Subaru Forester with 150,000 miles on it and a leaky head gasket would make me the envy of the neighborhood, if not for the head gasket thing.

Short answer: No.

I mean, sure, it's possible, but it's still a modest little 1998 Subaru Forester, with dents and scratches, even if it had a really tight head gasket. Even with the greatest head gasket ever.

Here is what will, in all probability, keep the Eagles from having a winning season: In a little more than two years, they have shed DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Evan Mathis, four Pro Bowl-level offensive performers, and Trent Cole, an aging all-time great pass rusher. In 2016, they have nothing to show for this. Not a player. Not a compensatory draft pick. (Yeah, they tossed the guy they got for McCoy into a trade that helped them make one of their two first-round draft move-ups this spring. OK, fine. That really changes everything.)

In addition to this, they diverted draft resources that could have helped replace this talent into trades for quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Carson Wentz, especially Wentz. And the plan is for Wentz to have no impact on the 2016 team whatsoever. Oh, and the guy they drafted to replace Cole a couple years back, Marcus Smith? He seems headed toward one of those "Eagles top 10 all-time draft busts" lists.

So, a winning season this year was already looking unlikely. The possibility of Lane Johnson, the offensive line's best young talent, missing 10 games, for a team that didn't draft an o-lineman in 2014 or '15, probably just strips away some of the pretense, makes the series of unlikely events the Eagles need to come true to contend even longer and more unlikely.

You can fit "Dennis Kelly plays at a Pro Bowl level in place of Lane Johnson at right tackle" right there between "Sam Bradford stays healthy and throws for 4,000 yards" and "Jim Schwartz leads breathtaking turnaround for formerly historically bad Eagles' defense, despite having no depth at linebacker or safety." After Schwartz, throw in "Jason Peters returns to healthy, All-Pro form at left tackle. His conditioning secret? Doug Pederson didn't make him practice."

If all those things happen, the Eagles will have a winning season and make the playoffs. I guarantee it. Oh, and if you see me in the Forester gliding down Haddon Avenue, hey, don't be a playa hater.

If Lane Johnson does indeed go bye-bye for 10 games, it's going to be a big blow for the offense. It not only weakens the line at right tackle, but robs the Eagles of their best left tackle option if 34-year-old Jason Peters gets hurt.

Oh, he's already hurt? That's right. I forgot.

I have no confidence that Peters is going to be able to start 16 games this season, or at least that he's going to be able to start 16 games and play anywhere close to the level that has earned him eight Pro Bowl invitations.

Doug Pederson has said Peters has "several great years left," which is nonsense and he knows it. They're just trying to squeeze one more year out of him.

Pederson has talked about "saving" Jason for Sundays by letting him rest some during the week. But even if Jason takes up residence in a hyperbaric chamber from Monday morning until Saturday night, I'm afraid his best days are behind him.

The Eagles can massage the loss of Johnson and survive. They can move left guard Allen Barbre out to right tackle and insert veteran Stefen Wisniewski, who has 77 career starts, at left guard.

But Peters is the straw that could break the camel's back. Not to mention Sam Bradford's collarbone. If he can't stay healthy and be much more consistent than he was last season, then, yes, it will prevent the Eagles from having a winning season.

Given some of this team's other shortcomings - most notably, a lack of depth at linebacker and safety and major questions at running back - nine wins was going to be a struggle this season anyway.

But I felt that if the offensive line could hold up and protect Bradford, who finished last season strong, the Eagles might be able to hang with the rest of the NFC East into December.

But without Johnson and with Peters' availability and effectiveness likely to be a season-long issue, yes, I think a winning season is unlikely.

Unless Lane Johnson's reported failed test becomes an actual failed test with a B-sample failure and a lost appeal, the answer is unknowable. Assuming the reports are correct and Johnson will miss the Eagles' first 10 games as a two-time cheat, then yes, this proves catastrophic to the Eagles' chances.

It also further condemns Chip Kelly's influence in the draft war room.

Even before the specter of Johnson missing time arose, several things had to fall into place for the Eagles to reach even nine wins.

First-time head coach Doug Pederson, with scant NFL coaching experience, had to be a prodigy of sorts to competently handle the job.

Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz needed to teach a group of players to play well in his 4-3 scheme after they played poorly for three years in a 3-4 scheme. To do that, Schwartz had to uncover and develop three or four cornerbacks.

Pederson needed to replace Kelly's machine-gun attack with his West Coast offense and Sam Bradford needed to function well in it.

None of those things mattered if the offensive line stunk.

Without Johnson, it will stink.

The fourth overall pick in 2013, Johnson was the best lineman on the team from the second half of 2014 through last season, and easily the best player on offense.

The Eagles drafted Johnson with the idea that he one day would replace Hall of Fame-bound left tackle Jason Peters, perhaps as soon as after the 2016 season. Peters, 34, has been a physical mess for much of the last four seasons. He is nursing yet another injury in this training camp, so it appeared that Johnson might take over for Peters sooner than later.

Johnson was, logically, the first and best of Kelly's 21 draft picks . . . and, incredibly, the only offensive lineman. Like many typically short-sighted college coaches, Kelly remained bullheaded about the cultivation of a top NFL offensive line. He was so maniacally obsessed with winning in the short term and so convinced that he could develop players without pedigree that he refused to use significant draft picks to develop linemen for purposes of depth.

Instead, Kelly relied on fringe players such as Andrew Gardner, Allen Barbre, Dennis Kelly and Matt Tobin. Barbre and Gardner each spent a season out of football, though Barbre has proven serviceable at left guard. Kelly has started just five games since 2012. Tobin, undrafted in 2013, has floundered despite multiple chances to win a starting job.

Kelly's blind spot crippled the Eagles' chances last season, when Peters played through injury much of the year and played abysmally, yet better than his replacements might have.

Incredibly, despite Kelly's firing and the re-ascension of Howie Roseman, the Eagles did little this winter and spring to bolster depth at tackle. They added fifth-round project Halapoulivaati Vaitai and Dillon Gordon, an undrafted free agent who played tight end at LSU and is listed primarily as a guard by the Birds.

So, Kelly and Tobin it is.

Goodbye, 9-7.

Hello, 5-11.

I am not sure the Eagles can produce a winning record even if they solve the many issues they had with their offensive line last season.

So I can't possibly believe they will play better than .500 football in 2016 if they have even bigger ones.

The best thing going for the Eagles' offensive line is right tackle Lane Johnson, and for the second straight season allegations of performance-enhancing drugs could derail the start of his season.

Johnson served a league-mandated four-game suspension to start 2015, and now he could potentially miss the first 10 games if a B sample shows positive for a banned substance.

Even if Johnson is cleared, there are still the issues of bounce-back seasons for left tackle Jason Peters and center Jason Kelce.

Pro Bowl selections in 2014, "The Jasons" both had disappointing seasons in 2015.

Free-agent right guard Brandon Brooks, from the Houston Texans, appears to be an upgrade, but that won't mean much if the other issues aren't resolved.

Theoretically, depth should be better since several of last year's starters will be reserves, but being unreliable doesn't change just because you aren't starting.

Still, my biggest doubts about the offensive line being the key to a winning season have little to do with the offensive line.

Even if the offensive line is solid, it won't mean much if the skill positions it is providing opportunities for can't take advantage.

If you have a great quarterback, running backs and receivers, a bad offensive line can derail a season.

If your quarterback, running backs and receivers range from poor to just adequate, a strong offensive line will not make the attack prolific.

With the possible exception of tight end, the Eagles do not have a skill position that has proven to be elite.

There are more questions concerning the anticipated performance of the quarterback, running backs and wide receivers than there are about the offensive line.

Dallas won 12 games in 2014 with Pro Bowl offensive linemen Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick in front of Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo, running back DeMarco Murray and wide receiver Dez Bryant.

In 2015, with those skill players gone or limited by injury, the same offensive line with three repeat Pro Bowl selections could only help the Cowboys to a 4-12 record.

If Sam Bradford, Ryan Mathews, Nelson Agholor and other skill players don't perform like winners, it won't matter much if the offensive does or does

Ed Barkowitz...Yes

Les Bowen...No

Bob Cooney...Yes

Jim DeStefano...Yes

Paul Domowitch...Yes

Marcus Hayes... Yes

Adam Hermann...No

Rich Hofmann...Yes

Dick Jerardi...No

Mike Kern...Yes

Tom Mahon...Yes

Drew McQuade...No

David Murphy...Yes

Max Rettig...No

John Smallwood...No

Bob Vetrone Jr....Yes

Deb Woodell...No