Ever wonder what happened to Eagles 2002 4th-round draft pick Scott Peters?
No?
Anybody?
The 2002 draft was one of the Eagles’ best ever, with Lito Sheppard in the 1st round, Michael Lewis and Sheldon Brown in the 2nd and Brian Westbrook in the 3rd.
Their next pick was Peters, a guard out of Arizona State.
Crickets …
Wait … this is a cool story!
NFL
Peters spent his entire rookie on the Eagles' active roster playing for O-line coach Juan Castillo but was inactive for all but two early-season games against the Redskins and Cowboys in which he didn't play.
After training camp in 2003, the Eagles released him (along with Tim Hasselbeck, Jamaal Jackson, Rashard Cook and Jeremy Slechta).
Peters wound up with the Giants and played seven games in 2003 and then bounced around the league — without playing another snap — until 2009.
Along the way, Peters began serious training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and opened up an MMA gym, “The Lion’s Den,” in Scottsdale, Ariz. After he retired, he began competing in martial arts and, according to his website - tipofthespearfootball.com — he won two world championships in submission grappling and for a while trained Brock Lesnar.
Peters also founded a program called Safe Football, where he teaches youth, high school and college football programs how to use fundamental martial arts principles to help young football players avoid concussions. Safe Football at some point morphed into Tip of the Spear.
According to his website:
“Tip of the Spear in no way means ‘soft football.’ With his program, the integrity and physicality of the game remain fully intact while also protecting players from career-ending and life-compromising injuries.”
Peters has been out of organized football since finishing his career in Arizona Cardinals training camp in the summer of 2009.
But on Thursday, the 41-year-old Peters was hired by the Cleveland Browns as their assistant offensive line coach, his first full-time job in football. The Browns’ offensive line coach is Bill Callahan, who worked with Castillo with the Eagles when he was on Ray Rhodes’ staff.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who played at Penn, said Peters’ background in martial arts is one of the reasons the Browns hired him.
"I think his unique experience as a technician and how he comes at it from a different angle, from a Jiu-Jitsu angle, really is a unique way to coach the players in terms of hand placement and hip movement,” Stefanski said on the team’s website.
According to the Browns’ website, Peters and Callahan have known each other for years through Jim McNally, who was on Tom Coughlin’s staff when Peters played for the Giants in 2003 and was on Rex Ryan's Jets staff in 2010 with Callahan.
You never know. Peters was a bust as a player, but it seems like he’s been pretty successful in everything else.
So who knows? Maybe there’s hope for Danny Watkins yet!