The Eagles aren’t playing this Sunday, but the day has started off with some relatively good news.
Doug Pederson said early indications on Jason Peters’ right biceps injury were “positive” and it turns out, he was right.
This might actually be better news than hearing Peters can play right away next Sunday against the Panthers.
Think about it: The good part about Peters, 36, missing a few weeks is it will force him to let that quad injury heal too. For a few weeks, he’s been really hampered by his quad but has refused to miss games. Now, both injuries can heal over the next couple weeks.
Peters hasn’t played to his normal standard recently, but at the start of the season, he looked to be at his Pro Bowl status. If these couple of weeks off get him back to that, it’ll be worth it.
While some fans are going to clamor for rookie Jordan Mailata, it’s too early for that. Halapoulivaati Vaitai is going to start for Peters at left tackle. Big V had his struggles this preseason and earlier in the regular season, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl run.
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And Vaitai plays better with a full week of practice. Pederson agreed with that assessment and then explained why Friday.
“You’re taking every rep, you’re seeing the fronts, you’re seeing the defense every single snap,” Pederson said. “It’s with any player that gets an opportunity to play the position all week and take all those reps, it just makes you better and more prepared going into a game.”
The Eagles are banged up at right tackle too. Lane Johnson played three quarters with a high ankle sprain Thursday night before coming out for the fourth quarter. If for some reason, he can’t finish games or misses any time while Big V is the starter at left tackle, Isaac Seumalo would likely slide from left guard to right tackle and Stefen Wisniewski would come in at left guard.
The Eagles under Pederson — and really before that under OL coach Jeff Stoutland — have really valued versatility along the offensive line. Times like these explain why.