Adrian Fedkiw
It’s amazing what a change of schemes can do.
After struggling with nagging injuries seemingly every week playing in Chip Kelly’s up-tempo attack last season, Jason Peters has thrived and stayed healthy in Doug Pederson’s slow and methodical attack.
Peters has been so good that the Philadelphia Eagles head coach Pederson doesn’t want his 34-year-old Pro Bowl left tackle to go anywhere.
I love him. I want him on the team. I don’t want him to go anywhere. I want him to be an Eagles for the rest of his career. So, we get through these next two games, we’ll have to address all that in the offseason.
Here’s the problem about that, Peters is an $11 million cap hit. That’s an expensive aging left tackle, but I agree with Pederson. Peters has played at a very high level in 2016, ranking ninth among tackles with a rating of 86.5, according to Pro Football Focus. When Lane Johnson exited with his suspension, Pederson relied on Peters and the left side of the line to run the football.
Peters still has some tread on those tires.
He’s very capable of another couple of seasons. He’s really done a great job from a health standpoint, his weight and managing all of that. I think (offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland) has done a good job with him, monitoring him in practice and not taking the full complement of reps throughout the week.
The Eagles currently have a lot of holes to fill on their roster and while depth at tackle is one of them, it’s not as much of a priority as getting wide receivers and cornerbacks. It’s going to take multiple drafts to seal all of the cracks on the roster. I’d bring Peters back and make tackle more of a need the following offseason. That’s when you start looking for his replacement.