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Runyan done as an Eagle?
I spent the weekend up in Boston with the wife visiting a friend, so I was out of the Philadelphia Eagles news loop. Turns out, Jon Runyan went through microfracture surgery on his right knee and will be shelved for 4 to 6 months.
Not a good development for sure, but does this signal the end of Runyan's football career? Not necessarily. However, Runyan's opportunity to finagle one more big payday has likely vanished.
I stumbled upon an interesting article written for Football Outsiders documenting the history of microfracture surgeries in the NFL. As with all surgeries, results are mixed. Optimists will point to Rodney Harrison and Bruce Smith, who returned to play a combined 19 seasons after the procedure, while the pessimists can just blurt out the name Stephen Davis who never returned as the impact player he was previous to the surgery.
Here's to a full recovery for Runyan. The guy has been nothing but a warrior and a professional for the Birds. He's also one of the best interviews in the locker room, and a guy that has never fed the fans one line of bullshit during his tenure in Philadelphia.
Here's hoping Runyan makes a full recovery and the Birds have the balls to sign him. One thing we know is that if Runyan can walk he will play; even after the microfracture surgery I have more confidence in Runyan playing a full season next year than Thomas. Okay, I'm more sentimental than Banner and Reid, but I believe that Runyan (and Dawkins) should retire an Eagle.
I don't think this is anyway the Eagles sign him. The good news is that no other team probably will either, and they might be able to take a flyer on him later.
The reason that Runyan is so good with the media and seems to echo the voice of fans may cloud our judgement. I would love to see big John back and I'm a huge fan. No matter what is status is during the week, you know Runyan will show up and play well on Sunday. Having said all that, RT is a lot easier to replace than LT. And the fact that Tra Thomas is not in commercials, on Comcast and providing sound bites makes us less connected to him. However, I think if we had to chose one, Thomas is probably more valuable to the team. You know the Birds won't sign both, but it will be interesting to see if public opinion creeps in the decision making process (although that's not usually a problem for Joe Banner & Co.).
We'll see if the Birds invite Runyan to camp and basically make him earn a new contract. I doubt any team would sign Runyan to any more than a veteran minimum with high levels of incentives for games played, % of snaps played, etc.