Jason Kelce got to Jeff Stoutland in his retirement speech, and it was another fight for the Eagles legend to hold back the tears. 

He recalled the 2016 season. It was brutal for him. He was often overmatched, and constantly committing penalties, to the point where he knew that he "looked like one of the worst centers in the league."

Fans wanted him gone, Kelce remembered, even the organization. 

"That offseason, I heard trade rumors galore and speculation I'd be cut," Kelce said nearly two years ago in the quiet of a captivated NovaCare Complex media room. "I imagine if the Eagles had received a trade offer for a brand new set of washing machines, they may have pulled the trigger. Hell, if I was in charge, I would have pulled the trigger."

Jeff Stoutland couldn't.

The Eagles' famous, but now former, offensive line coach saw fixable problems in Kelce's technique, but more important, Stoutland had the belief that the then-struggling lineman had the will to fix them.

"I think one of the greatest things a human being can give another is belief," Kelce said. "This world, life, it can be hard. It can challenge yourself to points of self-doubt, and that is a dangerous place to be. Well, I am lucky. My whole life, I have been surrounded by people that have believed in me: my father, my mother, my brother, Paul Longo, Howard Mudd, and in my darkest hours as a Philadelphian, Stout was the one who believed in me."

Kelce spent all of that offseason working with Stoutland on his footwork, leverage, and hand technique. The center came into training camp later in the summer with a chip on his shoulder. Unbeknownst to most at the time, that whole team did. 

Kelce went on to have his first All-Pro season in 2017, and what would become known as those underdog Eagles, they went on to win the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl.

At the end of a victory parade that Philadelphia had waited decades for, Kelce, in full Mummer attire on a freezing February day, stood atop the Art Museum steps and cited the quote that Stoutland had hung up on the wall of the O-line room for years: "Hungry dogs run faster."

The saying is as synonymous with the Eagles and their fans now as "Go Birds!"

Thank God, Stoutland never pulled the trigger. 

"It meant more because of the struggles and work we had been through," Kelce said years later, his words choking as the tears flooded his eyes. "Without him, I doubt any of this would have been possible, or that I'd still be here. Since that offseason, I have amassed six All-Pros, five Pro Bowls, and am recognized by some as one of the best centers to ever play the game. 

"I am very proud knowing where I once was, and the legacy I have left behind, and the man we can all thank is Jeff Stoutland."

Stoutland announced a decision on Wednesday night that "my time coaching with the Eagles has come to an end" through his social media channels, after 13 years of the team being consistently strong to outright dominant in the trenches, which went hand-in-hand with the 63-year-old becoming a household name among Eagles fans. 

How many O-line coaches can say their town knows who they are?

His statement was brief, the word "retirement" was never mentioned, and the message was addressed to Philadelphia. Not the Eagles. 

"When I arrived here in 2013, I did not know what I was signing up for," Stoutland wrote. "I quickly learned what this city demands. But more importantly, what it gives back.

"The past 13 years have been the great privilege of my coaching career. I didn’t just work here, I became one of you."

But in the past month or so, ever since the Eagles burnt out in the Wild Card round with a largely ineffective offense, maybe the writing was on the wall that a significant, and just as hard to swallow, change was near.

The Eagles were looking for a new offensive coordinator again after Kevin Patullo's one-year try at the job, along with head coach Nick Sirianni's inability to step in and correct mounting issues, saw what was a Super Bowl-winning offense a year ago devolve into an uninventive, incoherent, and highly predictable mess. 

Underlying those problems, though, was that the run game, the Eagles' bread and butter for years, took a sharp decline behind an O-line that was heavily injured and noticeably not as strong from snap-to-snap as it used to be. 

There were rumors, reports, and speculation that Stoutland's status with the Eagles had gotten murky. His additional coaching title of run game coordinator wasn't believed to be his anymore, and during the organization's search for its next OC in the past several weeks, the point that Stoutland was already there as a pre-installed part of the coaching staff was mentioned as a potential hangup by league insiders for any candidate looking to come in and fully implement their own personnel and scheme. 

The Eagles hired Sean Mannion for the offensive coordinator job late last week. 

Several days later, Stoutland, by his own call, was no longer an Eagles coach.

The reactions were immediate, as they always are in an era of social media, which came with anger, theorizing, and ultimately sadness over a long-crucial coaching pillar to the Eagles' success in the past decade suddenly being no longer part of the picture.

Then there were the showings of thanks and support, which will no doubt grow in numbers as the dust settles a bit, too, for a staple of the Eagles that was an invaluable part of two Super Bowl titles, the development of numerous All-Pros and Pro Bowlers, and years of the Birds often being regarded as the team with the best O-line in football, and all through three different eras of head coaches (Chip Kelly, whose greatest move was bringing him in; Doug Pederson, who had enough wisdom to retain him; and then Sirianni, who did the same to make two more Super Bowl appearances and the playoffs in each of his six seasons since being hired).

How many O-line coaches can say their town knows who they are? Much less, how many can say their towns had such a reaction to them leaving?

Stoutland meant that much.

It'll be different around the NovaCare Complex now, especially in that O-line room.

Kelce has always been vocal about what Stoutland meant for both his career and the Eagles as a whole, and reiterated that once again on Wednesday night through his own social media when word broke that Stoutland was leaving. 

Stoutland's impact, though, reached so much further. 

Jordan Mailata, before he became the hulking presence on the left edge of the Eagles' line, was a seventh-round project of a draft pick out of Australia who never played a single down of American football before Philadelphia called his name. He was a rugby star, and he wouldn't see the field for another two years after his draft selection because his skill set was that raw. 

But now it's tough to imagine the Eagles' O-line without the jovial – but just as menacing – tackle. Mailata has always credited that transformation to Stoutland's coaching and patience.

Lane Johnson will one day be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As Chip Kelly's first, and greatest, draft pick in his brief run as Eagles coach, Johnson went from a promising right tackle prospect to a regularly dependable one, and then almost overnight it sometimes feels, to a years-long stretch as arguably the best right tackle in all of football, where his responsibility for sacks come about as often as leap years do. 

Johnson has only known Stoutland as his O-line coach, and has always spoken just as glowingly about him as a major factor in the sustained success he's had. But now Johnson is in the home stretch of his career, and with Stoutland leaving his post, that has brought on concern now about Johnson's own future.

Bill Streicher/Imagn Images

Jeff Stoutland is the only O-line coach Lane Johnson has ever played for in the NFL.

A young Cam Jurgens took over at center after Kelce retired, and it often felt like the team never missed a beat as holes blew open and Saquon Barkley went taking off through them all the way to the Super Bowl last year, before back issues disrupted much of this past one.

Mekhi Becton went from a bust to a bulldozer under Stoutland's watch, which after a year, earned himself a ring and a big payday with the Chargers. 

And those are only just a couple of recent success stories out of "Stoutland U," as the Eagles' O-line room endearingly became known as – a place where tackles, guards, and centers could find their careers, or in some cases, even resurrect it. From Evan Mathis, to Isaac Seumalo, Jason Peters late into his run, Brandon Brooks, and Landon Dickerson, the list of graduates went on and on.

Class is dismissed now. 

Coaches in the NFL hardly stay in one place forever, and do ultimately have their end dates, but who knows if it really was time for Stoutland and the Eagles to go in different directions.

What's for sure, though: After 13 years, it's going to be different in that Eagles O-line room without Jeff Stoutland, maybe to a franchise-altering degree.

"I'll be honest, as a coach, I'm really fortunate to have the ability to coach the players that we have here," Stoutland said back in September, 2022, just before the Eagles were about to go on a tear straight to the NFC title, with their offensive line dominating the opposition throughout. "I really am."

Just about any player who had him will tell you they were just as lucky.

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