Cowboys to sign T Jason Peters
Days after Jason Peters‘ Cowboys visit, the parties agreed to terms. The 40-year-old left tackle will continue his career in Dallas, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter).
The former Bears, Eagles and Bills blocker will come in to fill the void left by Tyron Smith‘s injury. This will be Peters’ 19th NFL season. The Cowboys came into Labor Day holding the fourth-most cap space in the league (just more than $14M). Some of it will go to Peters, who stands to play an important role in helping the Cowboys defend their NFC East title. Peters grew up in northeast Texas, making this a homecoming of sorts to potentially cap off a Hall of Fame career.
Not much of Dallas’ cap space, it turns out, will be needed for the time being. The team is giving Peters’ a ramp-up period, with Todd Archer of ESPN.com reporting (via Twitter) Monday’s deal is a practice squad agreement. Since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the NFL to expand practice squads to 16 players, teams have increasingly used it as a way to add veterans ahead of promotions to the active roster. The Cowboys will be the latest team to take this route.
This transaction marks the third straight year in which Peters found a deal after waiting in free agency for months. He re-signed with the Eagles in July 2020 and joined the Bears in August of last year. The longtime Philly mainstay will now get to work on helping the Cowboys hold off an Eagles team that saw Smith’s injury strengthen its chances of winning the division.
Smith’s avulsion fracture, which he sustained August 24, is expected to keep him out until at least December. With it being possible the perennial Pro Bowler will miss the season, the Cowboys were left scrambling. They had been belatedly preparing first-round pick Tyler Smith to potentially begin his run as Tyron’s blindside heir apparent early. Jerry Jones said last week it was “safe to say” the Tulsa-developed rookie would start at left tackle, via Jon Machota of The Athletic (on Twitter). Peters either gives the Cowboys high-profile insurance, or a scenario in which the first-round pick moves back to left guard once Peters is ready emerges.
Peters does not represent the safest of bets here; injuries have cropped up fairly frequently in the latter half of the decorated performer’s career. He missed eight games in 2020 and only played in seven during the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII-winning season. But he is coming off a 15-game season in Chicago. The Bears added Peters in the wake of Teven Jenkins‘ back injury, and the veteran produced what Pro Football Focus graded as a top-25 tackle season. While this did not draw too much attention, as the Bears struggled in 2021, is showed Peters remained a viable left tackle option for a contending team. Peters indicated this offseason he wanted to play an age-40 season, and the Cowboys’ need looks to have created that opportunity.
The Eagles had Peters tied to high-end contracts for most of his 12-year stay with the franchise, but Peters played last season on a one-year, $1.75M deal. It will be interesting to see how much Cowboys wind up paying him, should this P-squad agreement translate to an active-roster promotion — as should be expected. Duane Brown signed a two-year, $20M deal to be Mekhi Becton‘s emergency fill-in. Becton’s avulsion fracture is expected to sideline him for the season. Brown is also a decorated left tackle and is three years younger than Peters, but the latter is a nine-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro.
As the Cowboys currently employ two All-Decade tackles and All-Decade guard Zack Martin, they have Terence Steele ready to take over for La’el Collins on the right side and Conner McGovern prepared to start at left guard. Peters (218 career starts) moving into Dallas’ lineup would likely bump McGovern down to a swing player.
