Philadelphia Eagles: Brandon Brooks’ recovery should not be taken lightly

Much like after the Super Bowl year, the mantra of the Philadelphia Eagles going into the 2019 season is “wait until next year when they get everybody back.” However full blown recoveries are not automatic, especially for Brandon Brooks.

The consensus in the Philadelphia area and even some nationally was that had Alshon Jeffery caught that pass in New Orleans against the Saints in the divisional round of the playoffs; Nick Foles would’ve lead the Philadelphia Eagles on another magical run. Then, they would’ve beaten the Los Angeles Rams in the Colosseum as they have in the two team’s previous two encounters, and possibly even beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl rematch in the process.

Hypotheticals aside, it’s time to face reality.

The Eagles were incredibly banged up. The secondary was a ragtag group, albeit one that overachieved, and there were all sorts of other bumps and bruises as a result of the wear and tear the season brought.

Fletcher Cox was limping throughout the aforementioned playoff loss to the New Orleans Saints, and Michael Bennett’s arm was pretty much dragging from his shoulder socket when the dust cleared. Both were very clearly visible when the camera showed them heading back to the dressing room after the game. The idea that the team would have kept rolling with these injuries is very questionable, even if they would have had all the momentum in the world.

There was one other casualty in that game that may not be getting much attention heading into the Eagles 2019 campaign and quest to regain glory.

Starting right guard Brandon Brooks, voted to the last two Pro Bowls, exited the game in the first quarter with what appeared to be an ankle or foot injury. The thing is, he didn’t walk back to the locker room, he was carted off the field.

The official diagnosis was a ruptured Achilles. This is not an injury that you simply bounced back from (see Sidney Jones). NBA players suffer this injury quite frequently and are never really the same. Kobe Bryant wasn’t even the same player after his injury, and the world is now holding their breath to see what happens with Kevin Durant.

But this isn’t the NBA. Sure, height wise Brooks may be similar in size, but he’s also a 335-pound grown man to go with that NBA-like six-foot-eight inch height. He battles in the trenches week after week during the season needing to drive the interior defensive lineman back on run blocks, eventually getting up to the second level to the linebackers, or move laterally to pull on traps or sweeps.

There’s also the fact that he’s asked to backpedal on pass protection, taking on these 300-plus pound pass rushers at full speed. All of this combined isn’t exactly a healthy regiment on that Achilles. If Brooks can’t go come the start of the season, it may not be overly concerning — but it would be quite significant nonetheless.

Let’s take a look at the back up plan.

Luckily, for lack of a better word, this isn’t precisely the teams first rodeo when it comes to dealing with potentially derailing injuries. If Brooks does have to miss some time, then the team’s starting guards will most likely be Isaac Seumalo, who started up all of last season at left guard. And Stefen Wisniewski at right guard, who was actually the starting left guard during the 2017 Super Bowl season, so there is experience there.

On top of that the team has reportedly been trying out Halapoulivaati Vaitai at guard, and by all accounts, he is doing very well. Vaitai’s prior experience, of course, comes from when he had to replace Jason Peters at left tackle many times as the future Hall of Famer ascends in age.

Well, this might not be a reason for a full-scale panic — especially when you consider that Brooks has been tweeting out his progress in video form, and the team is blessed with experienced potential fill-ins. Those fill-ins have yet to prove that they can perform at a consistent pro bowl level like Brooks.

This certainly is a situation for fans and the team to at least monitor as the 100th season of the NFL, and the 87th of the Eagles’ draws closer. Yet. Perhaps the reason Brooks’ progress isn’t at the top of fans’ list of concerns is that some depth does exist. While that’s true, it certainly isn’t something to simply pooh-pooh either.