Report: “It’s only a matter of time” before the Eagles re-sign Jason Peters

It sounds like Jason Peters is going to enter the 2020 NFL season as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting left tackle.

At least, that’s what NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Derrick Gunn seems to be indicating. Gunn said the following during a recent appearance on Quick Slants:

“Now, the plan was for last year’s first-round pick, Andre Dillard, to take over at left tackle but maybe they’re re-thinking that now. So, could the Birds be bringing back Peters in a backup role?

Well, first of all, if Jason Peters comes back here, he’s not coming back here as a backup. I do know for a fact that Jason Peters wants to be back in Philadelphia, the Eagles want Jason Peters here. It’s only a matter of time before they get something done.

Now, the plan was for Dillard to hopefully be their starting left tackle but he did not progress as quickly as the Eagles had hoped he would. So, you get Peters back here for at least one more year, Dillard is his understudy for one more year, learning under a future Hall of Famer, but by 2021 Andre Dillard had better be ready to protect Carson Wentz’s blindside.”

Further lending credence to this idea is that Lane Johnson recently said he wouldn’t rule out the Eagles re-signing JP.

I wrote about this possibility just earlier this week.

Are we 100% sure that Peters won’t play one more season in Philly?

The Eagles shouldn’t have to re-sign him, to be clear, but they might not be feeling so great about 2019 first-round pick Andre Dillard. A report emerged last week stating that the Eagles “dangled [Dillard] out there as possible trade bait.” In addition, Jimmy Kempski said the Eagles “have major concerns about him presently” after also noting that Dillard had multiple emotional episodes during his rookie season. All of this lines up with a sentiment that I heard in that some within the Eagles’ organization think Dillard is soft.

I also previously wrote how it’ll be pretty disappointing if Andre Dillard isn’t the Eagles’ starting left tackle in 2020.

It’ll be truly concerning if Dillard isn’t ready to be the Eagles’ starting left tackle in 2020. Otherwise, the Eagles will have traded up for a player in the first round who isn’t even at least a true swing tackle by Year 2 since he can’t play on the right side. And it’s not like Dillard’s this extremely raw and undeveloped prospect; he turns 25 in early October. By contrast, the projected first round tackles in this year’s NFL Draft are currently 20 years old. There’s also no real precedent in recent history for a first round offensive tackle to sit on the bench for two entire seasons.

We’ll wait and see if this actually happens or not but Gunn saying that “It’s only a matter of time before they get something done” seems pretty definitive to me.