Landon Dickerson has spent enough time getting banged up to know the difference between toughness and costing himself.
The Eagles left guard said Saturday that the decision to rush back from meniscus surgery last season left him playing well below his usual standard. Dickerson had the procedure in mid-August, pushed to be ready for the season opener on Sept. 4, and never really got right after that. His production slipped badly from the Pro Bowl-caliber level he had shown over the previous three years, and Pro Football Focus ranked him 31st among 81 NFL guards.
Now, he says he understands the mistake.
“Probably shouldn’t have gone out there and played,” Dickerson said after practice at the Jefferson Health Training Complex. “But you live and you learn.
You do stupid stuff when you’re young. Learned that mistake."
For Dickerson, the lesson is simple: being available while compromised is not the same thing as helping the team. He said he would rather miss time, recover fully and come back playing at the level the Eagles need from him.
“I mean, yeah, I don’t think there’s any reason to be tough and work through it if it’s just going to wear you down, because they don’t pay you to be hurt," Dickerson said.
Asked whether that new way of thinking has been hard to embrace, he didn’t make it sound like a major battle.
“I mean, not really, if you want to keep your job," Dickerson said.
There was also a report from NFL Network during the offseason that Dickerson had considered retiring after a difficult 2025 season, but he denied Saturday that he had thought about walking away.
Dickerson’s body has taken plenty of punishment over the years. He tore his ACL twice and dealt with ankle injuries in college, which is part of why he slid to the Eagles in the second round in 2021.
This offseason, he went to Columbia for stem cell therapy in hopes of helping his recovery. Asked whether it has worked so far, Dickerson sounded encouraged.
“So far, yeah," Dickerson said. “Feel good overall.
I mean, football doesn’t feel soft and fuzzy whenever you play. So yeah."
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