As I outlined yesterday afternoon, Lane Johnson's new six-year deal, which guarantees him $35.5 million, speaks to the Philadelphia Eagles' view of him as the team's long-term left-tackle. However, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Caplan appeared on 97.5 The Fanatic with Joe DeCamera yesterday evening, and said that he has been told that Jason Peters will still be with the team in 2016, meaning Johnson's full-time transition to the blind-side may have to wait.
"My understanding has been for the last couple of weeks that he's going to be back.''
''So here's the deal with Jason Peters. He's not the same player he once was. That's just a fact. But it's not like he's bad, it's just that he was beat up last season. And there's some people that question whether he was going to try to play though injury in a few games, that certainly was out there. But he is signed through 2018 and he does have a very high cap number at $9.3 million, but it would be fine had he been the player that he once was. But he's not. Lane Johnson, my understanding is that he has some language in his contract where he gets bonus money if he plays left tackle. He will be the left-tackle later in his career, it's just a matter of when Jason Peters will retire."
Obviously, Caplan has become one of the most trusted national insiders, so when he says something like this, it should be taken pretty seriously.
He did go on to say — though he admitted this part was his opinion and not a report — that he believes 2016 will be the final season for the 34 year-old left-tackle.
Caplan is correct in saying that while Peters isn't the hall-of-fame caliber player he was in his prime, he's still a very good player when he's on the field. The problem with him getting injured so frequently last season was that he was in and out of the line during the game and regularly missed practices. Multiple things, lack of talent being the biggest, contributed to the Eagles' offensive-line struggles in 2015, but Peters being in and out of games greatly hurt the line's chances of gelling.
When he was available, he certainly showed signs of declining, but as this All-22 image of Peters pulling on an eventual 54-yard touchdown run shows, he still is capable of being one of the better tackles in the league.
Whether Peters is able to rebound from an injury-riddled 2015 season remains to be seen. But it appears that the Eagles are prepared to give him the opportunity to do so.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is an editorial assistant for Eagledelphia.com.
