The Eagles aren’t even at training camp yet and one Pro Bowl starter is out for the year.
Starting right guard Brandon Brooks reportedly tore his left Achilles tendon while working out at the Nova Care Complex, per NBC Sports Philadelphia. Worse yet, the three-time Pro Bowl selection is expected to miss the entire 2020 campaign and won’t be fully recovered until June 2021. Brooks, arguably the best guard in football, looked to be in the best shape of his life in a recent Instagram video. Now he’s out for the year.
Brooks confirmed the report with a Twitter message saying: “So I guess now that news is out yes I tore my other Achilles but when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I’ll be back and better than ever. Appreciate the love.”
So I guess now that news is out yes I tore my other Achilles but when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I’ll be back and better than ever. Appreciate the love ✊🏽
That’s it. Brooks is out for the season and the search for his replacement has begun. Veterans Matt Pryor and Nate Herbig should get the first cracks at it in camp, but don’t count out stiff competition from rookies Jack Driscoll and Prince Tega Wanogho. And there’s the serious possibility the Eagles reach back out to Jason Peters. The free-agent left tackle has been itching to return to Philly.
He could slide into the starting left tackle spot and the Eagles could move Andre Dillard over to right guard. Or perhaps former 6-foot-8, 350-pound Aussie rugby star Jordan Mailata will finally show up and steal a spot. Lane Johnson could slide inside if they wanted to try him at right tackle. Stay tuned.
Nine-time Pro-Bowl OT Jason Peters, who turned 38 in January, has been working out to play this season and plans to play this season. He has spoken with the Eagles, but is keeping his options open: This is a video that Peters recently shot that he wants teams to see.
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Brooks Signed $56.2 Million Last Year
The Eagles were banking on a Pro Bowl right side of the offensive line for the foreseeable future when they handed Brooks a four-year, $54 million in 2019. Now the 30-year-old is slowly earning a reputation for being injury-prone.
Brooks was already coming off shoulder surgery this offseason after dislocating it in the season finale. He started 16 games in 2019 — minus the wild-card playoff game — and has started in 62 regular-season games and five playoff games since joining the Eagles in 2016. Pro Football Focus rated him their highest-graded offensive linemen (92.9) last season and he earned the website’s coveted Bruce Matthews Award.
Pro Football Focus wrote:
Brooks has been a perennially underrated player throughout his NFL career, whether it was playing in Houston or Philadelphia. Aside from a rookie season in which he played just 173 snaps, he has earned overall PFF grades of at least 74.0 every season since. Four of those six seasons before this one saw him top 80.0 overall, but this year he took his game to another level, earning an overall grade of 92.9. For years we have been making the case that he deserves Pro Bowl, and then All-Pro, recognition, and now he deserves to be acknowledged as the best offensive lineman in the game.
Philadelphia Eagles’ Brandon Brooks was the highest-graded guard in football in 2019, the second-ranked guard on the PFF50 and the fifth-ranked player on PFF’s 2019 101.
This news sucks.
However, this now marks the third major injury for Brooks in less than three years. He tore his right Achilles tendon in 2018 in a playoff game against New Orleans and miraculously rehabbed in eight months. He was back at his starting right guard spot in Week 1 up until Week 17.
“Honestly, it’s football,” Brooks after dislocating his shoulder last year, via Penn Live. “You’re gonna get hurt. It’s a contact sport. Did it suck? Yeah. But I really wouldn’t want to go out any other way, I guess, if that makes sense, being out there playing with the guys I love.”
Now being out there with the guys won’t happen until next year’s training camp, in 2021. The Eagles are going to have to make sure the next man is up and ready.
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Eagles Pro Bowl Guard Tears Achilles, Out for Season