Jason Peters

TWO YEARS AGO, before he ruptured his right Achilles' tendon twice in a 7-week period, Jason Peters was the best left tackle in the NFL. You can debate who might've been the best quarterback or the best running back or best wide receiver or the best pass-rusher in the league in 2011. But there's no debate about who was the best left tackle. There was Peters and then there was everybody else. He was that good. An athletic freak with running-back feet inside a massive 6-4, 340-pound body.

Despite rupturing his right Achilles tendon twice within a month last spring, Jason Peters said on Tuesday that he could have played late last season and that he anticipated playing near his all-pro form from 2011 for the Eagles this coming season. The left tackle met with reporters not long after he went through new Eagles coach Chip Kelly's first workout of the offseason. It was the first time Peters formally spoke with the media since his injury last March. He said that he knew Dec. 1, shortly after the Eagles shut him down for the season, that he was healthy enough to play.

PHOENIX - The Eagles will hold a private workout with Florida State quarterback E.J. Manuel, Eagles coach Chip Kelly confirmed Wednesday. Kelly was not certain if he would attend the workout, but quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor will be present. A 6-foot-5, 237-pound dual-threat quarterback, Manuel would seem an ideal fit for Kelly's offense. Kelly once recruited Manuel at Oregon, but Manuel wanted to stay closer to his Virginia home. "I knew him coming out of high school, thought he had a really good career at Florida State," Kelly said.

Last March, after extending Todd Herremans' contract and re-signing Evan Mathis, the Eagles said they felt as confident about their offensive line as any other position group. With the new contracts, they had all five of their starters locked up at least through 2014. Considering the progression the line had made by the end of the 2011 season, that was seen as a positive. But, less than two weeks after the ink was dry on Mathis' five-year deal, all-pro left tackle Jason Peters ruptured the Achilles tendon in his right foot and was done for the season.

INDIANAPOLIS - Chip Kelly appeared no closer to deciding on a defensive scheme, or at least revealing his plans publicly. There are obvious reasons Kelly has been reluctant to tip his hand, even though new defensive coordinator Bill Davis has worked primarily with 3-4 schemes and employed a 4-3 "under" in Arizona that looked like an odd-man front. The uncertainty allows the Eagles to obscure their plans in free agency and the draft. "I really think it's going to be an evolving thing," Kelly said Thursday at the NFL combine.

INDIANAPOLIS - So, how would you feel if the first draft pick of the Chip Kelly era is, drum roll, please . . . a guard. Could happen. It's early. The Eagles won't be on the clock for another 2 months. But you can put it on the list of possibilities, along with a half-dozen other potential draft-night scenerios. An interior offensive lineman hasn't been taken with one of the first five picks in the draft in 38 years. Thirty-eight years! You've got to go all the way back to 1975, when the Baltimore Colts took North Carolina guard Ken Huff with the third pick.

THIS YEAR'S NFL Scouting Combine, which starts Thursday in Indianapolis, is a whole new world for the Eagles. General manager Howie Roseman will be evaluating players alongside a new coach, Chip Kelly, and an even newer player personnel vice president, Tom Gamble. For the first time since Roseman arrived as an unpaid intern in 2000, the Eagles are drafting in the top five - fourth overall, meaning they must concentrate much more than usual on the prospects at the top of the draft.

TWO YEARS of bad offensive lines cost Andy Reid his job. Two years of injury and inexperience up front cost Michael Vick two concussions, five injured ribs and millions of dollars. Lousy blocking and confused assignments cost the Eagles' organization two precious seasons of DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy and Brent Celek, all in their prime. Those players, and Vick, have one last chance to again set defenders quivering in their quilts on Saturday nights. That chance lies in the lap of beefy, bifocaled offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.

When the Super Bowl finally came to an end late Sunday night, a sense of dread slowly crept over me. It wasn't because the game was disappointing (though the ads - a vital part of the modern-day Super Bowl experience - really sucked, with the sensational exception of Budweiser's trainer/Clydesdale reunion). What really bummed me out: Both of our major bowls are over (including Wing Bowl where Super Squibb let us down at the hands - or stomach - of someone called the "Bear"), and we are entering a dreadful 7-month stretch during which we will not see a meaningful football game.

MOBILE, Ala. - The Eagles will have questions at quarterback next season, but the health of their offensive line will be equally worrisome. Three of their starters on the line, including all-pro left tackle Jason Peters, will be trying to bounce back from season-ending injuries. And two of them - Peters and right tackle Todd Herremans - will be 31 this year. The situation screams for the Eagles to select a lineman early in the draft, possibly with the fourth overall pick. For the first time in 14 years, the team entered Senior Bowl week with a high draft pick, but none of the prospects projected to go in the top five, or even the top 10, were scheduled to be in Alabama.