Eagles shocker: Right guard Brandon Brooks tears his other Achilles tendon, will miss 2020 season

The Eagles’ plans for 2020 took a stomach-lurching turn Monday when three-time Pro Bowl right guard Brandon Brooks confirmed via Twitter that he’d torn his left Achilles tendon and will miss the season. The injury was first reported by NBC Sports.

In his tweet confirming the injury, Brooks added: “When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I’ll be back and better than ever. Appreciate the love.”

One thing surgeons warn about when an athlete suffers an Achilles tear, as Brooks did on the right side in the Eagles’ playoff loss at New Orleans after the 2018 season, is that the athlete now stands a greater chance of tearing his other Achilles. This was something Brooks, who turns 31 in August, talked about during his extraordinary recovery from the New Orleans injury. He started all 16 games in 2019, but suffered a season-ending shoulder tear in the finale against the Giants and did not play in the Eagles’ playoff loss to Seattle. He underwent shoulder surgery in January.

Linebacker DeMeco Ryans tore his left Achilles in 2010, playing for Houston, then tore his right Achilles playing for the Eagles in 2014 — in a game against the Texans, at nearly the same spot on their field where he’d suffered his first injury. Ryans, also 30 and nearing 31 when he suffered the second tear, returned to play in 2015. That was the final season for Ryans, now an assistant coach with the 49ers.

Another former Eagles linebacker, Jordan Hicks, also has torn both Achilles tendons — in 2013, in college at Texas, and then in the seventh game of the 2017 Super Bowl season. Hicks now plays for Arizona.

Because Brooks was rehabbing the shoulder injury, he was allowed to work out at the NovaCare practice facility, where he tore his left Achilles Monday while running. Brooks became one of the top right guards in the NFL after signing with the Eagles as a free agent in 2016, from Houston. He has struggled with an anxiety disorder, which he has controlled pretty well the last few seasons.

Eagles fans no doubt are concerned for Brooks, but also have to be wondering what happens now to an offensive line that was already facing a big question at left tackle, where 38-year-old all-time franchise great Jason Peters was allowed to become a free agent. The team plans to start inexperienced 2019 first-rounder Andre Dillard for Peters.

With no experienced O-line depth, following the departure of Halapoulivaati Vaitai to the Lions in free agency, would the Eagles try to bring back Peters? Would that really help much, considering that neither Peters nor Dillard is likely to play right guard? Could you play Peters at left guard and move Isaac Seumalo to the right side? Or would Matt Pryor (sixth-round pick in 2018), or Nate Herbig, or Sua Opeta (undrafted rookies last year) be better options?

Eagles coach Doug Pederson is slated to speak with reporters via Zoom Tuesday morning — the session was already scheduled — but with the injury news so fresh, it’s unlikely Pederson will be able to say who his new right guard will be. The Eagles drafted two offensive linemen from Auburn this spring, Jack Driscoll (fourth round) and Prince Tega Wonogho (sixth round). Both were tackles at Auburn, but Driscoll previously played guard at UMass.

Last November, after a near-perfect Brooks performance in an Eagles victory over the Bears, right tackle Lane Johnson called Brooks "the best lineman in the NFL right now, if we’re being honest.”

A study of 80 NFL players with Achilles tendon tears from 2009 to 2014, published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, found that 15 percent of the players suffered a subsequent tear; there was an overall return-to-play rate of 61.3 percent.

Brooks’ first Achilles repair was done by Dr. Robert Anderson, the go-to foot-and-ankle surgeon for NFL players, who practices in Green Bay. Brooks was very happy with the results of that surgery.

The Eagles were decimated by injuries to key players in 2018 and 2019, and they have reshuffled their medical and training staffs twice since winning Super Bowl LII — an upset victory achieved without Peters or injured starting quarterback Carson Wentz, among others.

This might be a difficult injury year across the league, with healthy players unable to work out at team facilities until training camp, because of pandemic restrictions. The Eagles wrapped up their virtual offseason meetings Monday.