Tackle Jason Peters left a lasting impression along the Eagles’ offensive line

Tucked in the back right corner of the Eagles’ locker room at the NovaCare Complex, the starting offensive linemen’s stalls are situated in the same order as their alignment on the field. For eight seasons from his draft year in 2013 to 2020, right tackle Lane Johnson would look four spots over and see left tackle Jason Peters in the locker closest to the back wall, the man as much of a fixture in the room as the stall itself.

Call it tackle telepathy, call it good spatial awareness, but Johnson didn’t need to hear Peters’ booming voice or see his 6-foot-4, 328-pound frame to know he was in the vicinity.

“He had that swagger and confidence about him,” Johnson told The Inquirer. “So he just had that kind of aura around him. That glow. And so I feel like people kind of swarmed to that presence.”

The physical embodiment of that presence has been missing for the last three seasons, as Peters’ illustrious 11-season chapter with the Eagles ended in 2021 when he signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Bears. After a 2022 stint with the Dallas Cowboys, the 41-year-old Peters found a new home this season with the Seahawks, for whom he figures to suit up for when the Eagles come to Seattle on Monday night.

While the nine-time Pro Bowler no longer frequents the NovaCare Complex, his presence lingers. On the top shelf of Johnson’s stall, nestled among an 11-year accumulation of relics including glass bottles of Coke, Jack Daniels, and Bumbu Rum and various pairs of eyeglasses, the right tackle displays a photo of himself holding up Peters’ jersey when he ran out of the tunnel for Super Bowl LII against the New England Patriots in 2018.

The moment captured in that photo was a request from Peters, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 7 that prevented him from playing in the postseason. For Johnson, it was an opportunity to show respect to a beloved veteran. Even though Peters wasn’t physically on the playing field, he was still on his teammates’ minds.

More than five years later, that photo and its prominent placement are proof that Peters’ teammates haven’t stopped thinking about him.

“I think I envied how he treated the young guys,” Johnson said. “I felt like he was a great leader. So within our O-line room, you have your starters and then guys that are working to play. And I just felt like he was always a help to everybody there.

“So for me as an older guy now, I kind of want to remember what he did for me and how I can pay it forward with these young guys.”

The Eagles selected Johnson fourth overall in the 2013 draft out of Oklahoma with the intention that he would eventually replace Peters, who was 31 at the time. The 6-foot-6 Johnson was taller than Peters but considerably lighter at 303 pounds. Going into his first NFL training camp, Johnson aimed to hit 310.

One day after practice during weigh-ins, as Johnson worried about his own weight, he recalled Peters stepping on the scale in front of him. It read 361 pounds.

“I’m going, ‘That’s a big-ass dude,’” Johnson said. “‘That’s a big-ass human.”

But unlike some men who resemble mountains, Peters could move. Originally a tight end at Arkansas, the native of Queen City, Texas, eventually made the switch to tackle after signing with the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent in 2004. His athleticism translated from tight end to tackle and set him apart from his peers.

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Tight end Dallas Goedert, who was a rookie in 2018, used to ride Bus 3 with Peters from the team hotel to the stadium before games. While seated at the back of the bus, Goedert said that Peters would regale him with stories from his days as “the greatest tight end since sliced bread,” all the while claiming that he could still run a sub-4.7-second 40-yard dash.

“I don’t know if he’s running sub-4.7s, but he could move really well,” Goedert said. “Forward, backwards, laterally. And then if he got his hands on you, you weren’t getting around him.”

That ability to move quickly translated to his speed off the ball. Johnson joked that people nowadays like to give him grief about “false starting all the time,” but when he entered the league in 2013, Peters was that guy with the fast feet. According to Johnson, Peters had an innate ability to time his get-off perfectly off the cadence, putting himself in the right position to win his battles with defensive ends. He knew just how to read them, too, capable of assessing their body language and uncovering their disguises of stunts.

Even though Johnson was initially drafted to be Peters’ replacement, the elder lineman never harbored any animosity toward him. Johnson ultimately beat out Dennis Kelly for the starting right tackle job in training camp, and Peters guided him along in his development thereafter.

“He was always there,” Johnson said. “If he ever saw something in the practice, he would say something to me right then. So it was easily correctable. Always like that. I like the way that he didn’t make the game too complicated, and I felt like it made him play faster and I felt seeing that from him made me kind of think of the game the same way.”

Johnson wasn’t the only player who benefited from Peters’ tutelage. When he was injured during the 2017 season, Peters stuck around as a pseudo-coach. He lent his insight to his replacement Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who faced a gauntlet of pass rushers in the postseason, including the Minnesota Vikings’ Everson Griffin and the Patriots’ James Harrison.

Peters would watch the offensive line’s sets in practice while he was injured, and after coach Jeff Stoutland made his adjustments, Peters would offer his feedback on what he saw. When he was healthy and able to participate in practice, Peters helped the edge rushers hone their crafts, too, according to defensive end Brandon Graham.

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“Just seeing him and Trent Cole battling all the time, trying to figure out where I could beat him and what he’d get beat on,” Graham said. “What I see T-Cole beat him on. And then what he was really good at. So I think early on [I was] just watching him and seeing what the best tackles in the league, what kind of stuff they do.”

But even though Peters was the “big man on campus” in Johnson’s eyes, he never lost the humility of an undrafted free agent. Off the field, he treated everybody with respect, giving money to staffers at the NovaCare Complex around Christmastime.

On the field, he uplifted his teammates, including Johnson, who grew up in Groveton, Texas, 180 miles south of Peters’ hometown in the eastern part of the state.

“I remember a lot of times, when I was young, if there was a good play or something, he would always say, ‘East Texas’ after a play,” Johnson said. “So that was kind of like his, you know, two tackles from Texas. That was pretty cool.”

Among the litany of Stoutland-isms that regularly reverberate in the offensive line room is one popular refrain: Happier players are more productive players.

Peters took the game seriously while simultaneously bringing smiles to his teammates’ faces. But the jokes weren’t forced. Peters was a “funny dude without trying to be,” Johnson said, replete with witty quips or retorts for any situation. Was a quarterback holding onto the ball for too long? [Expletive], it’s going to be a long play. Did a teammate point out his mistake on film in the meeting room? Shut the [expletive] up.

“I just felt like he kept the game where it was,” Johnson said. “It’s a game, it’s our profession, but he was always about laughing and smiling and keeping guys happy. I think that’s very important.”

In Peters’ absence, Johnson has carried on that responsibility to keep the mood light around his teammates when they aren’t hard at work. Breakfast time was Peters’ chance to show his teammates funny video clips he’d found on the internet, a tradition that Johnson upholds.

On the field, Peters used to be vocal in the huddle before each drive, motivating each player and checking each one’s focus. Left tackle Jordan Mailata, who ultimately became Peters’ successor in the 2020 season, has assumed that role in the Eagles offense. Like Peters, Johnson and the team’s veteran offensive linemen try to be a resource for the younger players.

“Just that little stuff he’s done over the years carries on with Jordan, with Kelc [Jason Kelce], with me,” Johnson said. “So he definitely infected us kind of with his personality and his demeanor.”

Peters’ presence remains in the meeting room, too. On Saturday, Stoutland showed a clip of a play from several years ago that involved Peters. While the intention wasn’t to single out Peters, his performance as an Eagle still provides a learning purpose to his former team.

“JP is one of those guys where he’s a Hall of Fame-caliber player,” backup tackle Jack Driscoll said. “And that’s something that ... the Eagles have had a lot of great O-linemen and JP’s ... I’m not going to rank anyone, but he’s up there in terms of best of all time. So yeah, he definitely has an influence and definitely just, I still see film of him. Stout will still show us film of him and whatnot. So definitely, his influence is still felt.”

On Monday night, Peters’ former Eagles teammates will see him in the flesh while he serves in a rotational role at tackle with the Seahawks. Peters is still kicking at age 41, making him the oldest active player in the league.

When it comes time for the postgame jersey swap, Johnson said he hopes that he will have the opportunity to trade with Peters. The 19-year NFL veteran now wears No. 70 instead of his 71 with the Eagles, seeing as the Seahawks retired it in honor of Hall of Fame tackle Walter Jones.

Regardless of the number on the back of the jersey or the team logo on the front, Johnson cherishes the man represented by the nameplate.

“He was almost like a big brother that I never had,” Johnson said.

The Eagles will visit the Seattle Seahawks in a Monday Night Football showdown. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lumen Field in Seattle.