Jason Peters Not Surrendering to Father Time
Jason Peters would like a word with Father Time.
“Who are you tell me when I can no longer play?” Peters inquires.
“Ah, my 38-year-old marvel, no one has beaten me, yet,” Father Time replies. “I am undefeated, don’t you know?”
An epic stare-down ensues.
Peters isn’t blinking, but Father Time’s triumphant time will come. Eventually.
Not now, not in 2020. Peters is coming back for more after agreeing to a one-year deal with the Eagles on Tuesday.
He has very little, if anything, to prove. His Hall of Fame resume has been written, and whether it’s good enough won’t be known until five years after Father Time claims him.
The sports world is full of athletes who tried to hold on for too long, unable to win the stare-down, though.
Football players aren’t supposed to play this long, especially guys who crash into each other on every play along the offensive and defensive lines (though across the country in Los Angeles, Andrew Whitworth is trying to match Peters by returning to the Rams, also at age 38).
Of the great offensive tackles to ever play the game, very few made it to 38.
Walter Jones, Anthony Munoz, and Rayfield Wright were done at 34.
Art Shell and Gary Zimmerman made it to 36.
Jackie Slater played one game at 41 years old and 12 at age 40; Bruce Matthews played mostly on the interior, and was still going strong at 40, playing all 16 games his final season; Forrest Gregg played six games when he was 40.
Lou Groza lasted until he was 43, but he played his last snaps at tackle at age 35 before hanging on for another six years as a kicker.
Peters isn’t a kicker, but there is a kicker.
He is returning to play right guard, a completely different position on the opposite side of the line.
There is no one lineman in recent memory who so late in his career switched from outside the line to the inside.
The Eagles tried to show Peters the pasture back in March, releasing him to the whims of free agency, and, while other teams reportedly showed some interest, his preference was to return to Philadelphia for a 12th season in Eagles colors and a 17th season overall.
They were prepared to move on without him and probably would have had Brandon Brooks not torn his Achilles last month.
With all due respect to Peters, the Eagles are about to find out if the old cliché about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks is true, and they are about to find out if it can be done in a COVID-19-challenged world where the entire preseason slate of games will be wiped out.
The continuing pandemic also makes it a very real possibility the regular season will be delayed. How long a delay lasts is important because each passing day brings Peters closer to his 39th birthday on Jan. 22.
Peters is here for another reason, too, and that is in case Andre Dillard falters in his second season in the league after being handed the starting left tackle job.
There’s no doubt Peters will bring volumes of leadership while serving as a second mentor in that offensive line room alongside line coach Jeff Stoutland. But Dillard, who is on record as calling Peters “the big man on campus,” can’t feel very comfortable with Peters BMOCing his way around the locker room knowing that the slightest dip in his play could lead to a seat on the bench.
That in turn would likely lead to an inexperienced Matt Pryor being inserted at right guard.
The Eagles’ affection for Peters and what he has meant to the franchise for a dozen years since arriving in a trade with Buffalo in 2009 is part of why he got the call to come back.
Another part is that the Eagles just couldn’t go out and spend big money on a free agent player who has played right guard like Larry Warford because Brandon Brooks was given a bank-busting contract extension last November.
The Eagles needed a one-year, inexpensive option and Peters was right under their noses.
On the one hand, it makes sense. On another, it doesn’t.
Fans may grow weary of his false starts or how sometimes an injury flares up and he cannot always finish a game. It's easy to forget that they're watching one of the game’s all-time true greats, and it is best not to underestimate him.
As Stoutland said last year about Peters, “Since I’ve been here, since 2013, all I’ve ever heard, ‘Ahh, he’s too old, he can’t do it, he’s not going to make it,’ and he’s proved everybody wrong, every single year, every single year.
“You might never see another Jason Peters again. I’m being honest with you now. This man is an absolutely incredible, incredible player.”
So, take that, Father Time, and be patient. Your time will come.
Right now, though, Peters isn’t blinking.
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