The Philadelphia Eagles lost a key component of their offensive line on Monday. Left tackle Jason Peters went down with a knee injury in the third quarter against the Washington Redskins. The leader on the offensive line, who is a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time All-Pro, will be lost for the season after tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee.
Philadelphia, which is 6-1, owns the best record in the NFL and is a legitimate Super Bowl contender. There are some who believe that, if second-year tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai or fifth-year tackle Lane Johnson cannot fill the void left by the Peters injury, the Eagles might want to look into a trade to shore up the left side of the offensive line. After all, Super Bowl windows can quickly close for most teams so you have to take advantage of any opportunities in front of you if you are surging like Philadelphia is.
Meanwhile, the 49ers are winless at 0-7 and have a veteran left tackle who is pretty darn good in Joe Staley. Eagles head coach Doug Pederson even praised Staley during a conference call with Bay Area media on Wednesday.
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"You look at Joe Staley and what he's done, his career, the dominance he's had in his career," Pederson said. "These are guys that get better with time."
On Wednesday afternoon, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said it would take a lot to deal Staley away. What would he say if the Eagles came calling? Shanahan answered that question.
"I haven't really thought about what they would do," Shanahan said. "Joe's a guy that I definitely want here, definitely not a guy I want to lose by any means. If anybody called for any one of our players, it's not like you just hang up the phone. If you want to offer the world, you always got to listen. You always try to think about what's going to help your team and make your team better.
"But to lose a guy like Joe Staley, that wouldn't be something I'd be excited about. So it would have to take a whole lot."