Perseverance paying off for Eagles' Gardner

The last time Andrew Gardner traveled to his home state of Georgia for an NFL game was in his rookie season with the Miami Dolphins. It was opening day, and Gardner, a sixth-round pick out of Georgia Tech, told all his family and friends to be at the Georgia Dome because he was going to be dressed and ready for his debut.

Something changed, however, between the time Gardner told his family and friends to be there and the time the Dolphins finalized their active roster for the game. The 6-foot-6 left tackle did not dress. It would not be his last disappointment on a circuitous career journey that appears headed back to Atlanta for another NFL opening game next month.

This time, barring some unforeseen circumstances, Gardner is not only going to dress for the Eagles' Sept. 14 game against the Falcons, he is also going to make the first season-opening start of his career as the team's right guard.

Gardner, 29, has been in the locker rooms of sixteams since that trip with the Dolphins six years ago. He has bounced from one practice squad to another, between tackle and guard, and wondered more than once whether his opportunity would ever come.

"It hasn't been a particularly straightforward [journey]," Gardner said this week after an Eagles practice at the NovaCare Complex. "I don't know how I'd describe it. I just know I feel very blessed to have had the opportunities I have had. I had to kind of grind year by year and try to get better in each situation."

The 308-pound lineman admits to having had some doubts about his career, particularly in his second season, when he was cut by the Dolphins just before the start of the regular season. Before the year was over, he had been on the practice squads of the Baltimore Ravens, Minnesota Vikings, and Cincinnati Bengals.

"There was never a point where I doubted I could play," Gardner said. "There was a point early in my career where I doubted if anybody else was ever going to agree with me. I looked around at other guys and said, 'I know I can do this,' but it just wasn't happening for some reason."

Life as a practice-squad player finally ended for Gardner when he joined Houston's active roster in late September 2011. But even though he got three seasons in with the Texans, most of his time was spent as a spectator. Gardner appeared in just seven games over those three years without ever making a start.

"In Houston, I always felt like I played well, but I never felt like I got a chance to show what I could do in a meaningful game," he said. "I really appreciated my time there. I felt like I really grew as a player, but I never got that chance when there were those live bullets so I could show what I could do."

That chance finally came last season with the Eagles. After being discarded by the Texans following Bill O'Brien's hiring as head coach, Gardner signed with the Eagles. His patience and perseverance were about to pay off.

"They wanted to bring me in here, so I jumped at the chance," he said. "They weren't beating down my door at the start of free agency. There were other opportunities, but it was like the opportunities I had here to become a depth player and an opportunity to make the team."

He made the team, and when injuries ravaged the offensive line, the opportunity he had been waiting a half-dozen years for finally arrived. First, he made two starts at right tackle in place of the injured Allen Barbre, who was filling in for the suspended Lane Johnson. But when Matt Tobin returned from an injury, the Eagles shuffled the offensive line again, and that sent Gardner back to the bench.

Eight games later, however, he got another opportunity, this time at right guard, a position that opened after a season-ending injury to Todd Herremans and a Tobin concussion. Gardner, despite some difficult patches and a three-game team losing streak, remained the right guard for the final six games of the season.

While the Eagles said the position was open for competition after Herremans was released in the offseason, it is now apparent that Gardner is the front-runner to remain in the same spot where he finished last season. Eagles coach Chip Kelly, however, is not ready to make that announcement, and Gardner has learned too many valuable lessons to make a premature acceptance speech.

"I guess I'll cross that when I get to it," he said. "I'm approaching every day as if I am the starter, but I guess I'll tell you how I feel when Chip makes that announcement official."

As much as he'll appreciate dressing and playing in front of his family and friends on opening night, that is not his goal.

"To me, the big deal is I want to start 16 games or 19 or 20, however many we play this year," Gardner said. "I don't want to just start the first one."

That, of course, would mean he had made the most of an opportunity that seemed to take forever to arrive.