Philadelphia Eagles: It’s time for Jason Peters to hang up the cleats

Jason Peters is doing more harm than good for the Philadelphia Eagles.

For the tenth game in a row, the Philadelphia Eagles have looked like a really bad football team. The offense still can’t consistently muster up drives, the defense constantly gives up big plays, and the coaching staff routinely gets out-coached by teams with far less credentialed minds.

There’s a lot we could criticize following this week’s loss, but one aspect really stuck out to me the most when watching the game: Jason Peters has gotta go.

Initially signed back to the roster to play RG following Brandon Brooks’ offseason Achilles injury, Peters ultimately forced his way back over to LT once Andre Dillard ended up on injured reserve as well. Peters drummed up this whole ordeal, demanding extra money to make the “switch” back over to the left side of the line. Howie Roseman eventually caved to his demands, handing him a couple extra million to hold down Carson Wentz‘ blindside.

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Unsurprisingly, Peters went down to injury fairly early on in the season. Former seventh-round pick Jordan Mailata subbed in and played at a serviceable level for a couple of weeks, but the job was ultimately handed back to Peters upon his return.

After today’s performance against a Myles Garrett-less Browns team, it’s really hard to make an argument for Peters to remain on the field. Not only is his Philadelphia Eagles career likely over after the 2020 season, but he’s now regressed to that of an actively bad left tackle.

Going up against Olivier Vernon, Peters had his lunch money absolutely stolen from him. Vernon finished the afternoon with three sacks, three QB hits, three TFLs, and one pass deflection. Peters was outmatched all game long, and it was a major reason the Eagles offense failed to ever get going (along with a billion other reasons).

Towards the end of the fourth quarter, and Peters had checked out entirely. It was unclear if he got hurt or if he just didn’t feel like playing anymore, but regardless, he wasn’t on the field.

Jason Peters is set to turn 39 years old in January, and his future in the NFL is all but over at this point in time. He’s struggled to stay healthy as of late, he routinely takes plays off in game, he has to take “rest days” during team practices, and he’s now regressed to that of a super below average tackle. He’s simply not athletic enough to keep up with today’s elite edge rushers, and it really showed against the Browns today.

The Philadelphia Eagles offensive line is a complete disaster at the moment, and there’s no clear path to a franchise LT in the team’s near future. Mailata is probably better served as a backup swing tackle, and Andre Dillard is one giant question mark at the moment. The Eagles benching Peters, and nudging him towards retirement sometime in the near future, likely doesn’t help them a ton in the short-term, but at the very least it sends a message to the rest of the roster.

Peters is a Philly legend, and it genuinely sucks that his Eagles career is ending in this manner, but that’s beyond the point. He just allowed three sacks to Olivier freakin’ Vernon, and he couldn’t even finish the game. It’s past time to move on.