Jason Kelce Talks Left Side of Eagles O-Line

If Jason Peters comes back, Jason Kelce is fine with it.

If Andre Dillard is indeed the man at left tackle, Kelce if fine with that, too.

The man in the middle and leader of the Eagles’ offensive line gave his take on the left side of the line, specifically the hotly debated offseason tackle position, but also on left guard, Isaac Seumalo, during an audio call Thursday afternoon.

Kelce called Seumalo, now in his fifth season in the league, “one of the premier guards in the NFL.”

The center added, “I think he’s one of the least respected guys on the line in the media and whatnot, but I’ll tell you what, everybody in our room knows just how good he is.”

That was merely the appetizer.

The meat and potatoes of what Kelce had to say involved Peters and Dillard.

Peters is still a free agent and recently said that if Tom Brady can play into his 40s, then so can he, because he feels great. Peters is 38.

Kelce isn’t sure how the situation will play out, whether the team will opt to make an offer to Peters to return for a 12 season in Philly or let him try to find a deal elsewhere.

“Jason Peters (is) the best player I’ve ever played with, so I always love to play with Jason Peters,” said Kelce.

“It is hard to imagine potentially playing without Jason Peters and the personality of the guy and what he’s been to this organization.

“At some point it’s going to be the end for all of us. I don’t know if it’s this year. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I would love to play with the guy again, but obviously this is in the hands of people who are making important decisions and cap decisions and all these other things that are way over my head.”

The Eagles could opt to bring Peters back due to an offseason without any on-field work being done due to the restrictions in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Kelce thinks that is overrated for someone like Dillard, who is entering Year 2 after being drafted in the first round last year.

“OTAs and minicamps and everything is important, but the biggest thing for returning guys, and Andre being one of them, is going to be the training camp and physically going against somebody in pads," said the center.

“He’s going to be able to go out there and be able to work on little things. You don’t improve that much, physically in OTAs and minicamps. It’s more of a mental improvement and a little bit of technique work, but you’re not putting shoulder pads and that’s where Andre needs to continue to get reps at and continue to work at and continue to get more one on ones and play in preseason games and live games and whatnot.”

Kelce also had high praise for Dillard, who made three starts at left tackle and held his own against pass rush standouts Robert Quinn, Khalil Mack, and Everson Griffen.

Dillard catches some flack for a training camp episode where he appeared to get emotional after an incident and was being addressed by head coach Doug Pederson and, during the season, not seeming to embrace having to switch to right tackle in a pinch.

Physically, though, Kelce likes what he has seen from Dillard.

“He’s very quick-twitched,” said the center. “He can move his feet really well. He’s athletic. He’s smart. He’s got a lot of the things that are hard to get if you don’t have it. If there was one weakness to his game last year, it was power. I think he knows that.

“I think everybody knows that. That wasn’t even that big of a weakness where we couldn’t go out there and win games with him, because we did, at times. Now, he gets a whole offseason to improve on that. He gets to get into the weight room, add some weight, add some muscle, add power. He’ll be able to correct that, for sure.”