Jason Peters' Eagles Future Still Cloudy
INDIANAPOLIS – Jason Peters still sits firmly on the bubble as to whether he would remain with the Eagles this season.
There had been an expectation among many at the NFL Scouting Combine that the bubble would burst when Howie Roseman met with the media gathered here on Tuesday. The Eagles general manager, however, gave no indication what the team’s plans are for the veteran left tackle, whose contract will expire when the new league year begins on March 18 and become a free agent.
“I think as it pertains to all of our free agents, I think it’s important that as we go through this process, we keep an open mind with everyone, and try to figure out as we get more information,” said Roseman. “A big part of this week is accumulating information. That’s what we’ll do here.
“Obviously, when you’re talking about Jason Peters, you’re talking about a Hall of Fame player, a Hall of Fame person. Someone who’s very special to us and played at a really high level last year. We’ll go through all of those decisions this week, and that will be kind of my stock answer as we go through every free agent we talk about here.”
After that, it was pointless to ask about some other key pending free agents, such as running back Jordan Howard, cornerback Jalen Mills, and offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai.
Just as it was pointless to ask about the contract of safety Malcolm Jenkins, who wants a new deal despite having one year left on his current contract. Someone did try and this is what Roseman said:
“Malcolm has been a great player, a great person for us,” said Roseman. “As it relates to contract negotiations with all of our players, we’ll try to keep in house, and have honest conversations with all of our players.”
Pointless.
Head coach Doug Pederson, who went to the podium right after Roseman, was succinct in his answer about whether he wanted Peters to return.
“Oh yeah,” said Pederson. “I think I said the same thing about Darren Sproles. Heck yeah.”
That the question about Peters, now 38, has not been resolved can mean one of two things.
First, the Eagles want him back and are preparing an offer. If so, that doesn’t speak well about how they feel about last year’s first-round draft pick, Andre Dillard.
Roseman was asked how feasible it would be to sit Dillard for another season after trading up to get him with the 22 overall pick, costing the Eagles two later-round picks to do so, in 2019.
“Andre getting that experience, certainly at left tackle, was huge for him,” said Roseman. “We’re very confident in his abilities to be a really good player. It’s a good problem for us to have, that we have a lot of these offensive linemen that we think are good players, that can play.
“It’s an O-line deficient league. I think we feel fortunate that we have these good options and that 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, that we have a lot of good options.”
Second, it could mean the Eagles don’t want another Brian Dawkins situation on their hands and want to be sure that Peters’ situation is handled properly, with no hard feelings, that they are handling this as delicately as possible.
Back in 2008, Dawkins wanted to remain in Philly, the same way Peters hopes to, saying so after the season ended. The Eagles didn’t want to pay Dawkins, so Dawkins left an angry and bitter man following the 2008 season to go to the Denver Broncos as a free agent.
“When you talk about guys who are historic players in the National Football League, guys wo are going to the Hall of Fame, guys who are going to the Eagles Hall of Fame, those guys are special people and special players and you don’t have a lot of those during the course your career,” said Roseman, “so you try to make decisions first that are good for the football team and at the same time have respect and appreciation for what guys have done and what they have done going forward and will be part of your organization for a long time.”
Sooner or later, the situation will be revealed.
It just didn’t happen on Tuesday.
