Since Jason Peters was injured and fans realized that King Dunlap was the only LT on the roster, there's been a bit of fear and desperation. The number of random things named that "have to better than King Dunlap" has been staggering. My personal favorite was Jason Peters in a wheelchair.
Thing is, I'm really not sure where this sentiment comes from. Is it just a poor first impression? King's debut came three years ago in 2009 when Jason Peters was injured against Oakland. He struggled quite a bit against Richard Seymour, to put it lightly. But as a rookie 7th round pick coming off the bench to face one of the best pass rushers in the NFL... what else could be expected?
And since then, he's really improved. Our pal John Breitenbach, who covers the Eagles for Pro Football Focus looked back at all of King's snaps over the last two seasons and found that all in all, he's been solid.
Overall, Dunlap allowed four sacks, two hits and 10 pressures in 242 pass blocks in 2010, good enough for a pass blocking efficiency of 94.6. He only started a couple of games this past season-just once at tackle. Again he did a solid job, allowing just a single pressure against the Bills in 45 snaps. Dunlap even filled in at guard against Arizona and did an admirable job against one of the league's most dangerous 3-4 pass rushers in Calais Campbell. He allowed just two pressures in that game; only one to Campbell.
Be sure to read John's review of his start against Dallas in 2010, when King shut down the pair of DeMarcus Ware & Anthony Spencer.
Now, like I've said in all of my defenses of King over the last week, there's no telling how he'd perform over a 16 game season or if he'd even stay healthy enough to last that long. But I really don't think he'd be a disaster.
All that said, I fully expect the Eagles to bring in a veteran from somewhere. [Note by JasonB, 04/04/12 1:24 PM EDT ] Obviously I scheduled this prior to the Bell signing...