"In the third installment of this summer's Most Overrated and Underrated Eagles of all Time, we take a look at offensive linemen. The Eagles have had plenty of terrible offensive linemen over the years. Anybody heard from David Diaz-Infante, Dennis McKnight or Lonnie Palelei lately? But who are the most overrated and underrated?

Next Monday: Defensive backs.

Overrated

Steve Everitt

He talked tough, he looked tough, he acted tough. He just didn't play tough.

The Eagles signed Steve Everitt to a much-ballyhooed five-year, $11.5 million contract before the 1996 season, making him the highest-paid center in NFL history at the time.

Everitt looked the part and quickly became a fan favorite because of his affinity for tattoos, heavy metal and motorcycles. There's a phrase football scouts use: "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane." Applies here. Everitt was big, mean looking, talked trash and was from the U, and he seemed to be everything Eagles fans had been craving in an offensive lineman after a decade of O-line ineptitude. Everitt was the highest drafted center in the 1990s, the 14th pick in 1993, and we all agreed it was about time the Eagles finally had a big-time offensive lineman.

Only problem was that Everitt wasn't very good. He was actually pretty bad.

Everitt lasted three years with the Eagles, and it was the worst three-year period the franchise has endured since the mid-1970s. From 1997 through 1999, with Everitt in the middle of everything, the Eagles had the fewest wins in the NFL (14), scored the fewest points in the NFL (15.6 per game) and allowed the third-most sacks (169, five fewer than the Raiders).

The interesting thing about Everitt is that it took us a little while to realize just how ineffective he was. After a generation of bad offensive linemen -- from Adam Schreiber to Gerry Feehery to Ron Hallstrom to Broderick Thompson to Ben Tamburello to Barrett Brooks -- we desperately wanted Everitt to be the savior. The guy who brought our O-line back to respectability. Instead, he led it through one of the darkest periods in Eagles history.

Dave Alexander

Dave Alexander benefitted from being surrounded by some world-class awful offensive linemen, so in comparison, it seemed like he was relatively competent. In reality, Alexander was a relatively small, relatively ineffective, relatively soft center whose intelligence and savvy weren't enough to make up for his physical limitations.

Alexander was certainly durable -- he started 113 consecutive games for the Eagles at left guard (1988) or center (1989 through 1994) over an eight-year period. During that span, the Eagles allowed more sacks than any NFL team (307) and won just one playoff game (thanks mainly to the defense).

Alexander blocked for just one running back who gained at least 700 yards in a season, and that back -- Herschel Walker -- was benched by the end of his only 1,000-yard season in Philly."