Remember when everybody was all worried about Jason Peters?
Even Jason Peters was worried about Jason Peters.
Peters said a few weeks ago he didn’t think he was playing up to his usual standard, and it was hard to argue with him.
The Eagles’ offense was struggling badly, Sam Bradford was getting hit way too much, the running game was non-existent, and the Eagles had lost three of their first four games.
Everybody on the offensive line was struggling. But nobody was used to seeing Peters — a possible future Hall of Famer — struggling.
Head coach Chip Kelly said before practice Thursday that the veteran left tackle is back at his all-pro level.
And said that even when he was struggling, it was all relative.
“I think there’s a very high standard for Jason,” Kelly said. “I don’t think Jason played poorly at all. I just think you’re talking about a perennial Pro Bowl player, so if Jay gives up one play where a guy beats him around the edge it’s like, ‘Oh my God, what’s wrong with Jason Peters?’ Where if it’s anybody else, you don’t say that.
“He blocks his guy 79 times and on the 80th time he gets beat it’s, ‘What’s wrong with J.P.?’ It’s just that we have such a high standard for him and he has such a high standard for himself.”
Peters, a one-time undrafted tight end with the Bills, has made seven Pro Bowls, including five in a row as an Eagle when he’s been healthy.
Only 10 active players have made more Pro Bowls than Peters — Peyton Manning (14), Tom Brady and Jason Witten (10 each), Drew Brees (nine) and Larry Fitzgerald, Antonio Gates, Julius Peppers, Joe Thomas, DeMarcus Ware and Charles Woodson (eight each).
“He did play his best game this past week,” Kelly said. “I think he’s playing really, really well right now.”