Before the Eagles played the Rams on Sunday, there were rumblings that RT Lane Johnson would not be playing. He was later confirmed out, but instead of a listed injury, the explanation was “personal reasons.” Johnson already said that this would be his final season, but after the game, Brandon Graham weighed in to say that it was possible that Johnson could retire immediately.
Whoa. I don’t know what the personal reasons are (and though we are all obviously curious, there really is no reason for us to know), but if it was bad enough to take him out of the game Sunday and have him thinking of hanging up his spikes then it must be pretty serious. Of course, we all love Lane, but we have to worry about how this affects the team, so let’s dive in.
The New Right Tackle
After yesterday’s defeat, the Eagles dropped to 18-30 when Lane Johnson doesn’t play. With him, they are 122-63-1. Very simply, his retirement is potentially a HUGE loss. The first man up to replace him is Markel Bell. He was very much a rookie this week and the recipient of all the Rams big pressure sets. They targeted and overwhelmed him on basically every 3rd down. It wasn’t pretty. Still, they need to see if he can perform better with a full week of 1st Team practice and simply more in game reps.
If Bell isn’t the guy and is eventually relegated to swing tackle duty in the future, then OT is the first target in the Draft. Right now their looks to be 3 tackles worthy of first round selection: Jordan Seaton (LSU), Trevor Lauck (Iowa), and Trevor Goosby (Texas). The only way one of them isn’t an Eagle by the end of April is if Bell pops off over the next few months.
The Eagles may have gotten lucky with Jordan Mailata, but they can’t count on that kind of lightning striking a second time.
Salary Cap
Even if Lane Johnson retires before I hit publish, he will not be submitting his paperwork to the league office any time soon. The Eagles won’t let him. Why? Because if he does then they get crushed with a $25m cap hit next season. While his current $21m 2027 cap hit doesn’t seem much different, it ignores the plan the team already had in place.
The Eagles had prepared for Lane to retire after the season (after June 1 2027 actually). In that scenario, his $21m cap hit for 2027 goes down to $12m. It also allows his 2028 cap hit of $17.5m to drop to $13m.
Many of you are probably thinking that maybe Lane could just do the team a solid and either change his contract or give money back. This is possible, somewhat. Lane makes a minimum base salary plus had his $18.7m option bonus exercised. That bonus was guaranteed when he signed his most recent extension before last season. While he could give it back and lower his future cap hits, he is under no obligation to do so, and the Player’s Union would have a problem with him trying to give it back (it sets a bad precedent).
As for next season, his actual cash received will be nothing. I mean that literally too, he has no guaranteed money on his deal after this year. The cap hit is solely from previous option and signing bonuses finally hitting the books.
Dismount
We all hope everything is ok with Lane and his family. All is certainly not ok with the Eagles though as unavailability and ineffectiveness are destroying the season right now.
Photo: Staff Sgt. Charles Casner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (altered with AI)
Contracts: Spotrac and OvertheCap
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