The unknown offensive lineman the Eagles just can’t get rid of originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
He keeps getting thrown out. And he keeps coming back.
Brett Toth was sacked seven times by three different NFL teams, including four times by the Eagles.
Toth, who turns 28 in two weeks, is a survivor. He has spent at least part of six consecutive seasons with the Eagles, playing in 17 games, including one start. The only outfield players who have been with the team longer are Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson, Dallas Goedert, Avonte Maddox, Josh Sweat and Jordan Mailata.
Brett Toth? Seriously?
Yes.
He’s having a good training camp and has a good chance of surviving the roster cuts starting a week from Tuesday. Toth is a rarity in that he can play tackle, guard and center.
“I think the mindset is realizing you can’t play politics and not focus on building the roster,” Toth said. “I went into this with the goal of building the trust in the guy next to me, no matter where I am. …
“Time flies. Every day, the same experience, the same goal. Go out there, get better, build the confidence of my teammates. I’m just happy to be here and get another chance.”
Check out Toth’s career:
2019: Signs with the Eagles as an undrafted rookie free agent out of the Army. Released on August 31st and spends most of the season on the Cards’ practice squad.
2020: Released by the Cards, signed by the Eagles, plays in six games, mostly on special teams.
2021: Released by the Eagles, re-signed by the Eagles, plays in 11 games, mostly on special teams.
2022: Missed the entire season due to a torn cruciate ligament.
2023: Signed and released twice by the Eagles, signed by the Panthers, plays in three games with one start, released by the Panthers, re-signed by the Eagles.
2024: Signed by the Eagles to the futures contract.
Toth has a good size at 6’6″ and 200 pounds and is quite athletic, but his greatest strength is his intelligence, which is necessary to be able to play five different positions.
Which can’t be easy.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “My favorite piece is what (offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland) asked me to do.”
“If you play all five, you only get a fifth of the reps at each position, so it’s difficult. But you have to kind of cross-train it so that certain blocks at tackle can correspond with certain blocks at center, and you just have to try to get reps at other positions and put them together.
“A lot of footage, always consistent with practice, when I don’t go and look at it and just realize within the scheme itself that some of the position groups are not as different as they seem.”
Toth’s career stalled when he suffered a serious knee injury in the meaningless final game of the 2021 regular season against the Cowboys at the Linc. That was the last time he took the field for the Eagles, although he did play three games with the Panthers last year.
But this summer, for the first time, he is healthy and in top form, which gives him a real chance of a place in the squad.
“When you don’t play for two years, you’re not used to hitting, you’re not put under the same amount of stress on your body, so every time you come back there’s definitely going to be some kind of shock phase,” Toth said. “And I definitely felt that in camp last year.
“And when you’re out there, you feel like you’re at 70 percent, you’re fighting as hard as you can, you’re kind of mentally beating yourself up too. So the last year has definitely been difficult for me.”
One of the lasting memories of Toth from his earlier stints with the Eagles was his terrible snapping. It got so bad that the Eagles couldn’t even play him at center with the secondary offensive line because you just never knew where the snaps were going.
He fixed it with a simple solution.
“It’s simple,” he said. “I tried to snap like Jason Kelce. But you can’t try to adapt your game to that of one of the all-time greats. … Because if you’ve seen Jason Kelce snap, you know there’s a lot of pressure on it. So last year I tried to change it, showed it wasn’t working, went back to my old game and had no problems.”
If Toth makes the team, it’s because of his versatility. And with Mekhi Becton and Tyler Steen both out, his value increases.
In addition to regulars Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Becton and Johnson, Steen, Fred Johnson and Trevor Keegan also appear to be solid players. If the Eagles keep ten, that’s likely two of Toth, Dylan McMahon and Darian Kinnard. If they keep nine, only one of those three would make the cut.
People like Matt Hennessy, Max Scharping and Nick Gates seem to be watching from the outside.
“So, to me, Stout is one of the best offensive coaches in the game,” Toth said. “I just learned the techniques, the X’s and O’s, the strategy behind our running game, our passing game, and I’ve also been to two other places where I can compare other coaching styles and stuff like that. I’m thankful for what he taught me and for the guys here.”
“But in the same sense, everyone knows it’s a business. If they don’t want me and someone else does, I’ll do whatever I want. The team that takes me in will do whatever they ask of me.”
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