May 17, 2026
During the offseason, we'll be taking a close look at Philadelphia Eagles players of interest who are currently on the roster but we may not know a lot about just yet. In this edition, we'll take a look at second year interior offensive lineman Drew Kendall.
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Kendall started 37 games over his college career, all at center. He has NFL bloodlines, as his father is Pete Kendall, who was a Seahawks first-round pick (21st overall) in the 1996 NFL Draft who played 13 seasons in the NFL.
"Drew, you talk about somebody who's just made to play in the NFL, obviously his dad was a first-round pick," Roseman said after the Eagles selected him. "It's hard to find. It is a center deficient league. There are not a lot of centers on draft boards.
"It is not a natural trait to snap the ball and so not every offense lineman can do that. A lot of times you'll sit there in the fall, and you'll go, 'We'll move this guy to center and then you'll see them in the all-star games and at the Combine and snap the ball and go, '(laughing) That's not going to work, that can't happen.' It's not a natural trait and so we felt very fortunate that he was there."
Kendall has a decent blend of size and athleticism:
During his rookie season, Kendall got snaps at center in four games. Three games were blowout wins, and the fourth was the "resting starters" game Week 18 against the Commanders. He played a total of 89 offensive snaps on the season, so as a disclaimer, there wasn't big library of plays to watch.
• Above, Roseman mentioned simply snapping the ball as a trait. It's probably something that most fans take for granted, but not every interior lineman can do it. Kendall has extensive experience at center, and it comes naturally to him. I did not see any bad snaps in his games that I watched. It's also perhaps worth noting that when he played at Boston College, he snapped without issues to 6'5 quarterbacks like Phil Jurkovec and Emmett Morehead, but also a 5'10 quarterback in Tommy Castellanos.
• In the run game, I didn't see him overpower defenders, but what he does well is get to landmarks quickly and seal off defenders. I pulled a few examples.
Here he's going to try to get to the outside shoulder of the DT to his left. This is a tough block to execute, but you can see his quickness here. (He is the center, No. 66.)
Here he's pulling to the left, and you can see that he and Brett Toth are setting up a running lane to the outside. However, Tank Bigsby is more of a "chaos get it and go guy," as opposed to a patient "wait for blocks to develop" guy, and he slams it up inside when he sees a sliver of daylight instead of following Kendall. Still, you can see Kendall's ability to get to the perimeter here.
And here he is getting to the second level. You'd prefer to see a little more of a jolt to the DT, but he has good feet thereafter tracking Bobby Wagner at the second level.
• In pass pro, I thought he did a nice job staying in front of defenders. I counted one pressure allowed in the Commanders game, no sacks. An example here, in which he easily handles a quick swim move by the Commanders DT.
He wasn't really tested with any good bull rushes, which was a mild concern coming out of college.
• One thing I'd like to see him improve on is playing through the whistle. There were a few times he thought the play was over, when it wasn't, like here:
Just a little nitpick there.
On Wednesday, we included Kendall among six Eagles players who should have elevated roles in 2026.
During locker room cleanout day, Kendall said that he cross-trained at guard throughout the season, in addition to his primary position at center. Kendall will have a chance to be the first guy off the bench at center and maybe guard this season. The Eagles otherwise lack proven depth on the interior of their offensive line.
The first guy off the bench a year ago was Brett Toth, who was a key backup:
• He started four games.
• He played at least 30 snaps in six games.
• He played at least 10 snaps in 10 games.
In total, Toth played 199 snaps at LG, and 164 snaps at C.
With Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens fighting through injury-plagued seasons in 2025, Kendall might become an under-the-radar player of importance in 2026.
Based upon what I watched — with the disclaimer that it was a small sample size — I like what I saw from him and think he's ready to be the primary backup, at least at center, but probably also guard.
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