Jason Peters Reportedly Headed to Free Agency

The left tackle's 11-year career with the Eagles appears to be at an end, opening the door for last year's first-round pick, Andre Dillard

A week ago, Doug Pederson was all in on Jason Peters.

The Eagles head coach was asked at the NFL Scouting Combine if he wanted his left tackle to return in 2020.

“Yeah,” said Pederson without the slightest hesitation in his answer. “I think I said the same thing about Darren Sproles.”

Maybe that was the end right there. The decision to bring Sproles back each of the last two seasons was probably the wrong one, since Sproles got hurt each of those years and didn’t have the same impact he did earlier in his career.

And the decision to bring back Peters, now 38, would have probably been the wrong one, too, especially with last year’s first-round draft pick, Andre Dillard, waiting in the wings, so the Eagles have reportedly decided to let Peters explore free agency, according to a report by The NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

Peters spent the last 11 seasons with the Eagles and became known to his teammates as “The Bodyguard” for his ability to protect whichever quarterback he was blocking for at the time.

He did well enough that he will likely be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after he retires.

Except Peters isn’t ready to retire. He said following the Eagles' season-ending loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs that he felt as good as he had at the end of a season than he had in years, and he still wanted to continue playing.

He will hit the free agency market when it opens on March 18.

The Eagles and Peters’ representation will continue to stay in touch, per Garafolo, so it isn’t out of the question that Peters could return.

“There’s no question when you talk about guys that are historic players in the National Football League, guys who are going to the Hall of Fame, guys who’re going to the Eagles Hall of Fame, those guys are special people and special players, said general manager Howie Roseman at last week’s Combine.

“You don’t have a lot of those in the course of your career, and so you try to make decisions, first, that are best for the football team, and at the same time, have respect and appreciation for what guys have done, and what guys (will do) going forward and are going to be part of your organization for a long period of time.”

Dillard made four starts last year, one of which came at right tackle. It didn’t go well at all at right tackle and Dillard was benched at halftime.

In fairness to the rookie, he had never played right tackle in his life. In his three starts at left tackle he held up well. Still, Dillard needs to get stronger, which he is most likely doing right now during the offseason.

“Andre getting that experience, certainly at left tackle was huge for him,” said Roseman. “We’re very confident in his ability to be a really good player. But it’s a good problem for us to have, that we have a lot of these offensive linemen that we think are good players and that can play.

"You know, it’s an offensive-line-deficient league, and I think we feel fortunate that we have these good options and it’s not the flip side, where we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do going forward on our offensive line.”

After the season ended, Dillard said: “I feel this year has really helped me a lot to be confident that I would be able to do it next year If I’m called upon to do that. I’m really grateful that I got to start a few games this year and step in every once in a while. It’s really given me a gauge on how the live action is on this big of a stage and playing against the best of the best.”