PHILADELPHIA _ Four years ago next week, Jason Peters was first publicly questioned about the potential end of his tenure with the Eagles.
"Who are they going to put in there that's better than me? Nobody," the left tackle said then. "Who are they going to draft that's better than me? Nobody. ... I'm the best they got."
Peters had just been named to the seventh of his eventual nine Pro Bowls. He was still playing at an elite level. But he had just completed his 13th NFL season. And the Eagles were about to embark on a coaching search. There were no guarantees.
Peters was right about something that day in the visitors' locker room of MetLife Stadium in North Jersey. The Eagles decided they couldn't find anyone better to take his spot. And they came to that same conclusion the following three seasons.
But the team may have finally drafted someone good enough to replace Peters. Even if rookie Andre Dillard isn't yet there, the Eagles' first-round investment makes it all but certain that he will start on the left flank of offensive line next season.
Which means that Sunday's season-finale at the New York Giants could be Peters' last in midnight green. A victory would secure the NFC East title, however, and even if the Eagles were to lose, they would still qualify for the playoffs if the Cowboys were to fall to the Redskins.
But annual year-end questions about Peters' future are popping up again, and with his 38th birthday less than a month away, and a succession plan already in place, the end in seemingly near.
He apparently doesn't think so.
"You tell me somebody that's better than me, and I'll walk away from the game," Peters said to reporters following last Sunday's win over the Cowboys. "You got somebody?"
When a reporter failed to come up with an answer, Peters said, "OK, then. I'm going to keep rolling."
Since returning in 2016, Peters has said at the start of every season, when asked about retirement, that he was playing year-to-year and wouldn't make any verdict about his future until after the season. But his sentiment post-Cowboys game suggests that he's become the NFL's version of The Godfather Part II's Hyman Roth: unwilling to retire despite the obvious.
If there's anyone who can convince the Eagles that he has another year left, from ownership on down, it's Peters. He's still getting the job done and has missed only three snaps in the last five games since a three-game absence and arthroscopic knee surgery. He will start in his 13th game this season, which coach Doug Pederson said was "a win" for the Eagles.
"Where he is in his career and what he's done, I think he's had a very productive season," Pederson said Friday. "And here lately coming back from the procedure he had, he feels good."
Many would understand if the Eagles decided to move on this offseason, though. Peters isn't the protective wall he once was. He still moves remarkably well, but his freakish days are behind him. And he's committed a team-high nine penalties.
But his colleagues on the offensive line, from veterans to rookies, insist that he's still got it. Their evaluations are surely slanted favorably, but they are indicative of the esteem in which Peters is held not only in the o-line room but throughout the NovaCare Complex.
Here are their reflections on Peters' career, his legacy and his future:
