Few fans of the Philadelphia Eagles would feel comfortable if you suggested to them today that the team will somehow be just fine without guards Evan Mathis or Todd Herremans next season, but that seems to be exactly what the team and head coach Chip Kelly believes given their actions this offseason.
For whatever it's worth, an NFL personnel executive recently voiced a similar sentiment.
"I don't know how much either one of them has left,'' the executive said recently, via Mark Eckel of NJ.com. "Herremans had a nice career, but you look at the past few years he wasn't the same. Then, he got hurt last year.
"(Mathis), that's the craziest thing I ever saw. He either got the worst advice from an agent ever, or he made the dumbest mistake ever. You watch him last year? He's just a guy at this point. Why do you think he hasn't been signed?"
In place of Mathis, who was jettisoned after griping over his contract, which was set to pay him $5.5 million in 2015, and Herremans, who was simply jettisoned, the Eagles currently have unproven players like Matt Tobin, Allen Barbre, Andrew Gardner, Dennis Kelly and the recently added John Moffit.
"I haven't seen a lot of (Barbre), but he'll be fine,'' the executive said. "Moffitt was OK before he hurt his knee. So you have to see how that goes.''
It seems at this point that Barbre is likely to lock down the left guard spot. Despite already being 30 and having started just eight games in his career, he's a player continually praised by Eagles teammates and coaches alike. Moffit, a former third-round pick of the Seahawks in 2011, faced a four-game suspension his rookie season for PEDs and then spent the 2014 season away from football trying to get his life back together after battling drug and battery charges.
Still, it seems the expectation is less that Barbre and Tobin - or whatever the combination at guard winds up being for the Eagles this season - will be upgrades on Mathis or Herremans, but more that Philly's strength at the two tackle spots and at center mean all Barbre and Tobin need to do is be good enough for the Eagles offense to succeed in 2015.
"Peters,'' the executive said, "yeah he's still real good, probably the best. He's just a physical freak. You talk to our guys about him they'll tell you he's the best. People talk about Tyron Smith in Dallas. He's good, but I'll still take Peters.
"(Johnson) is OK, too. You see him developing, getting better. They're all right there. And the center (Kelce) is good, too. With him, and the two tackles you can find guys to play guard.''
