Jason Peters suffered a torn biceps in last night's win over the Giants. Just a flesh wound, says Peters, and he'll be fine to play, but we'll see. If nothing else, it seems likely his effectiveness will be somewhat limited, with one's bicep muscle being kind of important to arm strength. Makes sense to downgrade the Eagles a little in the updated rankings.
Peters missed the second half of last season, of course, and the Eagles went on to win the Super Bowl anyway. If Peters can't play through the injury, they'll plug in Halapoulivaati Vaitai and move forward, just as they did a year ago. So a blow, but not a killer to the offense.
Another significant injury from last week occurred for Kansas City. Guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif broke his leg, and is likely out for the season. Duvernay-Tardif is a fascinating guy (great story in Sports Illustrated recently) and a solid guard. It's a downgrade to Jordan Devey; we'll find out how much of one at New England this week, perhaps.
At offensive line, like many other positions in the NFL, it's a war of attrition. Teams that looked great back in June don't look quite as strong now. Although some teams have gotten better than expected play from either youngsters or guys who transitioned to a new system, and those lines have turned out better than expected.
Table below shows offensive line rankings back in June, and where they stand right now, due to injuries, improving or declining players, or free agent signings who maybe haven't made the impact that was hoped for. Circling back to last night's game, is the Giants offensive line better for having signed Nate Solder? Doesn't seem that way.
| OFFENSIVE LINE RANKINGS, THEN AND NOW | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | June | Oct | Change |
| New Orleans | 3 | 1 | +2 |
| LA Rams | 6 | 2 | +4 |
| Philadelphia | 2 | 3 | -1 |
| Pittsburgh | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| LA Chargers | 7 | 5 | +2 |
| Atlanta | 5 | 6 | -1 |
| Dallas | 1 | 7 | -6 |
| Green Bay | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| New England | 12 | 9 | +3 |
| Tennessee | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Jacksonville | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| Washington | 13 | 12 | 0 |
| San Francisco | 15 | 13 | +2 |
| Baltimore | 19 | 14 | +5 |
| Kansas City | 14 | 15 | -1 |
| Chicago | 23 | 16 | +7 |
| Oakland | 9 | 17 | -8 |
| Tampa Bay | 20 | 18 | +2 |
| Denver | 27 | 19 | +8 |
| Detroit | 21 | 20 | +1 |
| Minnesota | 17 | 21 | -4 |
| Seattle | 24 | 22 | +2 |
| Carolina | 18 | 23 | -5 |
| Cincinnati | 28 | 28 | 0 |
| NY Jets | 26 | 24 | +2 |
| Indianapolis | 22 | 25 | -3 |
| Cleveland | 16 | 26 | -10 |
| Miami | 29 | 27 | +2 |
| NY Giants | 25 | 29 | -4 |
| Houston | 30 | 30 | 0 |
| Arizona | 31 | 31 | 0 |
| Buffalo | 32 | 32 | 0 |
In the table, the lines which look the most improved -- better than we anticipated -- are bolded. The lines which appear most damaged are in italics.