Lane Johnson’s season-ending injury motivated him to return. The veteran tackle is eager for a less ‘stagnant’ offense.

Lane Johnson said he knew something was wrong with his right foot on the first play against the Detroit Lions in Week 11 last season.

At the snap, Johnson took a power step and attempted to anchor down against the opposing defender. Then he said he felt a pop in his foot.

He kept playing. But on the next series, Johnson took a bull rush from Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and couldn’t anchor. The six-time Pro Bowl right tackle had played through several ailments throughout his 13-year Eagles career to that point, but he struggled to overcome this one.

Over halfway through the first quarter, Johnson exited the game with what was later diagnosed as a Lisfranc sprain that ended his 2025 season. Still, Johnson was determined to ensure that it wouldn’t be the last moment of his career on the field.

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“I didn’t want to go out that way,” the 36-year-old Johnson said on Tuesday.

He didn’t. The two-time All-Pro was back on the practice field for the first practice of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. Johnson didn’t appear to miss a step, taking every repetition in both individual and team drills with the starting offense.

At the end of the 2025 season, fellow tackle Jordan Mailata said he expected Johnson to return for a 14th season, but he added, “whatever happens, happens,” acknowledging the degree of uncertainty surrounding Johnson’s future. According to Johnson, though, he never doubted that he would return, staving off retirement for at least another year.

“I wanted to play,” Johnson said. “Only thing that’s keeping me thinking about retiring, just family. Mom and dad getting older. You miss a lot of time. But other than that, man, I love this game so much. I love competing with all my teammates. I love becoming an older player. A lot of guys trend down in their 30s. I feel like my career has been the opposite, where my career started to blossom in my 30s.”

That positive career trajectory, Johnson said, had continued in 2025 up until the foot injury. He said he thought he was having a “really good season” at the time, and the stats back up that assertion. Johnson did not concede a quarterback hit through 262 pass-blocking snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

Johnson said he also felt like the team was starting to “make a turn” for the best before his injury. The win over the Lions extended their winning streak to four games. The offense displayed flashes of dominance in the first two wins of that stretch against the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants.

But the Eagles’ season began to falter instead, as they lost their next three games. Johnson, meanwhile, did not go on injured reserve, with the hope of returning for the playoffs. However, he didn’t recover in time to play in the wild-card playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

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“I was trying to come back,” Johnson said. “I was rehabbing, I was practicing, and so toward the playoff game, I went out there to practice, and after a couple series, my foot would just swell up, and then the mobility piece became to where it was just I couldn’t function.”

Time was a luxury that Johnson didn’t have last season. He said he finally felt 100% healthy around February or March.

“I feel good,” Johnson said of his current health. “But it took a long time to get here. I wish I could have done this at the end of last year.”

Johnson is moving forward, and so is the rest of the offense. With Sean Mannion now at the helm, Johnson is acclimating to a plethora of changes, from the scheme to the man in charge of teaching its finer details to the offensive line.

For the first time since his rookie season in 2013, Johnson has a new offensive line coach in Chris Kuper. Jeff Stoutland, the Eagles’ offensive line coach for 13 years, left the organization this offseason.

Johnson called Stoutland’s departure a “shocking ordeal.” But he said he has had time to process the change. Kuper, he said, has garnered the respect of the offensive line room through his playing and coaching experience.

Throughout the offseason program, Johnson has mostly worked remotely, tuning into meetings via Zoom. Johnson has been encouraged by the new scheme, stating that he hopes that the offense “won’t be as stagnant as it was last year,” especially regarding the run game.

“You have the ability to stretch it front side, but also the running back has the ability to read backside blocks more than maybe what we did in previous years,” Johnson said. “It really does a good job of allowing us to run. We have a lot of athletic guys up front, so being able to stretch the field, make the D-tackles run, make the linebackers run, cover all this ground.

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“And then I think setting up with the play action is just going to be a whole lot tougher to distinguish what we’re doing. Whole lot harder to catch on tells with stuff that we’re doing. So I think this stuff, we can disguise it more.

“I’ve watched this system, [Klint] Kubiak, [Kyle] Shanahan style of offense from afar, and I’ve always envied wanting to be a part of it. So here I am, after all these years, getting a chance.”

A chance to play in the Shanahan/Sean McVay style of offense will also give its tackles more help from guards in pass protection. Throughout most of Johnson’s career, he’s been left on an island to fend for himself.

“If I get beat inside, having a guard come out and help me is a big deal for me,” Johnson said. “So, me likey.”

Johnson likes the new blocking scheme, and his familiar opportunity to prove that he only gets better with age entering Year 14.

“I’m hoping this will be a great year for us, a great year for me, and we can right a lot of the wrongs that we had last year,” he said.

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