Reinjury Might Not Jeopardize Peters' Career
Dr. Steven Cohen from the Rothman Institute says a second Achilles' tear during rehab shouldn't affect Jason Peters' chances to make a full recovery.
Reinjury Might Not Jeopardize Peters' Career
Les Bowen
It was alarming to learn that Eagles offensive tackle Jason Peters had suffered an Achilles' tendon reinjury and had to undergo a second surgery recently, but most people around the team never thought Peters was going to make it back to play effectively this year, anyway. The big question the second surgery raises is whether Peters will recover completely, say, by next year, or ever, given the seriousness of an Achilles' tear.
Will this change the outlook?
"Not necessarily," said Dr. Steven Cohen of Philadelphia's Rothman Institute. Cohen is an orthopaedic surgeon who works in sports medicine. "It depends on where the tear is. Whether it's retorn from the same area, whether it's in a different area. It can retear in the same area...or it can retear in an area that's weaker, slightly above or below the (repaired) area of the tendon... If it was in a different area, then it's similar to just a primary repair, and he's just now a few months behind where he was because of a new injury."
Cohen cautioned, of course, that he is not involved in Peters' care and doesn't know many specifics. He said if Peters reinjured the original site, that opens the possibility of "gapping," in which there wouldn't be enough material to make another sturdy repair, and muscle or tendon from elsewhere would have to be grafted onto the tear. That would be a complicating factor, but once everything heals, "there's no reason you wouldn't be able to play," Cohen said.
Cohen said somewhere around 1 to 5 percent of the people who tear an Achilles' experience another tear while rehabbing. According to Comcast SportsNet.com, Peters suffered the reinjury when the Roll-A-Bout scooter he was riding at home collapsed and he fell. The scooters, which look like a stool outfitted with wheels and a retaining bar in front to keep the leg from sliding off, are often used in such cases now in lieu of crutches. The ComcastSportsNet.com story said Peters intends to sue the Roll-A-Bout manufacturer.
'That's certainly feasible, given his size," Cohen said, asked about the cart-collapse scenario. Peters usually weighs in the 340 range. The carts supposedly will support about 500 pounds; it would be possible for a 340-pounder to exert 500 pounds of force on the cart. "Certainly any issue with a fall can reinjure that area," Cohen said.
The Eagles signed free agent Demetress Bell from Buffalo to take Peters' place this season, but that is a tall order, given that Peters was among the top two or three left tackles in the NFL last year, and was an excellent fit for the scheme of offensive line coach Howard Mudd. Very few o-linemean offer the size and speed of Peters, who entered the league as a tight end.
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They signed a promising, young OT in Demetress Bell to a five year deal. The Eagles can move on. Best wishes to Jason Peters. He gave them a few good years.— soulman386- Clearly, Reid should be fired for this fiasco. He absolutely should have known in 2009 when he traded for Peters, the 27 year old Pro Bowl left tackle, that 3 years later Peters would tear his Achilles not once but twice in a span of two months.
There, now it's been stated for the morons. Let the rest of us have an intelligent conversation.— Penfold18 
Penfold18- You got it all wrong it's the goalies fault, Bryz should have caught him before he hit the pavement. It's going to be Phil Whinaden's story tomorrow.- unlike clueless rube, who decided that he would "hope" Howard would simply have a miraculously speedy and compete recovery from his achilles injury, Eagles took the intelligent approach in this case and signed a replacement -- not this this diminishes from the pain and suffering suffered by Peters... fans rip Reid but Amaro is infinitely more of an imbecile— warbiscuit
- Yes, they should have signed someone like Albert Pujols as a backup...just in case. — joeibt
- One thing I do know................This Sucks!— Geno D
- Warbiscuit - I share no love for Amaro but I wouldn't necessarily say he's an idiot, he probably knew as well as we did that Howard was a long shot this year. What burns me up more is he banks the entire offensive season on two guys he had in the lineup when we got shut down completely but the Cards for 4 playoff games straight. One year after the same guys whiffed out the joint in San Fransicso in elimination. Anyone with a brain has to know they need more offense and only and idiot would think guys on the tail end of their career are going to suddenly play like they are young again. He takes orders from above just like Andy Reid does, he's not king of the castle over there and he has a budget. I think his four aces philosophy stinks, it would be ingenious if we had an offense that wasn't in steep decline. So he spent all his play money on pitching and now he doesn't have any left when he needs it for hitting on a rainy day. Whether that was truly his plan or Monty's is anyone's guess.
- hopefully they can find a few more doctors who are unfamiliar with Peters' case to guess at his prognosis.
that would certainly be interesting.
— ekw555 
lol...yea uh, maybe actually DRAFTING JASON PETERS would be the smart thing to do. Then I would give credit to Reid. or maybe even PICKING HIM UP AS AN UNDRAFTED FREE AGENT AND MOVING HIM FROM TE TO OT like the bills did...again, then I would give him a ton of credit. Instead, he threw money at widely the best OT in football. That takes almost no coaching skill oncesoever. That is not a great accomplishment. And even worse, you get a guy who already has a few years of wear and tear on his body meaning HE IS MORE LIKLEY TO GET INJURED. SHOCKING. I wonder why Reid hasnt won a superbowl and is .380 against winning teams ? hmmm- Aren't you one of the losers who constantly complain when the Eagles switch a player's position? — logicandreason
- arent you the guy that said last week I was wrong about sub 300 pound DT's being undersized...at which point I listed that 80% of pro-bowl Dt's last year were over 300 pounds...meaning the smallest 20% are in fact "undersized" allegedly. And the thing about the current Eagles is they usually try to switch some undersized guy to a position where even more size is needed. But switching a BIG player to another position where he can succeed CAN ACTUALLY BE A GOOD IDEA. (ie. nanmdi being a former Safety to CB...Al Davis did that...or Peters from TE to OT...the bills did that)...all of the Eagles attempted switches ARE STUPID IDEAS, which is why I SAY SO. but OTHER TEAMS, actually utilize bigger players, which is often A GOOD THING. Which is why others teams switches actually work, whiles the eagles fail or get mediocre results. Switching bigger guys to smaller positions is a good idea, switching smaller guys to bigger positions is stupidity.
- "... all of the Eagles' attempted switches ARE STUPID IDEAS"
…you mean like Todd Herremans’ switch to Tackle from Guard or Jamaal Jackson’s switch from Guard to Center? Soooo happy you’ve researched all of this for us Chucky!— Laughingaloud123 - umm, come on. really ? this is getting tiring...teams shuffle guys on the 0-line so often I DONT EVEN CONSIDER IT A SWITCH. I am talking about actually switching positions where different skill-sets are needed, not shuffling guys along the 0-line. Every team in the league moves guys along the 0-line so I dont even count that....but when they actually try to move guys to new positions like making a running back play Fullback, or a college Safety play LB...it goes horribly to not so good. The Eagles have never "switched" a guy besides 0-line who became a pro-bowler at the new position like other teams have. NOT ONE TIME. Oh wait, Tony Hunt and Keenan Clayton made the pro-bowl 5x times each, my bad. Andy is a Genius.
- given this crack staff, they're probably already polling at the local hospitals looking for comparably uninvolved experts who will support the OTHER catchy headline .. Reinjury Could Jeopardize Peters' Career
— raoool
