Why Lane Johnson called it a career four games into the 2026 season, and what's next for the Eagles
Johnson had flirted with retirement previously, but it took until the middle of his 14th season that the future Hall of Famer decided the time was finally right.
Lane Johnson had thought about retiring along with Jeff Stoutland.
The plan was that they’d “go out together,” something they had “talked about before last season,” a source familiar with Johnson’s thinking told The Inquirer.
The Hall of Fame-bound right tackle was initially devastated when Stoutland walked away from the Eagles in February, a move that was precipitated by the organization’s decision to change its offense and strip the longtime offensive line coach of his run game coordinator role.
“I think it’s my sign,” Johnson told a few confidants at the time.
But he didn’t want to make a rash decision. He wanted to hear out Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion and Stoutland’s replacement, Chris Kuper. He was encouraged by what he heard about the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay scheme they had planned to implement in Philadelphia.
Johnson made calls to other players who had been coached by Kuper, a former player himself, and the responses were positive. He knew he still had good football left in his then-35-year-old body, despite missing the final eight games of the 2025 season with a Lisfranc foot injury.
And when he finally decided to make his return public, he simply responded to a text message from The Inquirer with a thumbs-up emoji.
But the idea of retirement had long been on Johnson’s radar. He was ready to quit the game in the middle of the 2021 season when his mental health reached a crisis point. A year later, he told The Inquirer he might have two years left.
“F— this game,” he said in Nov. 2022.
Johnson was talking about the never-ending anxiety of playing tackle at the highest level of the sport.
“It’s like Michael Myers always around the bushes,” he said. “That’s the best explanation I can come up with. The job’s never finished. I don’t look forward to any games.”
Johnson played three more full seasons after that. But he couldn’t get through a fourth. On Tuesday, two days after he missed the Los Angeles Rams game, he announced his retirement after nearly 14 seasons in the NFL.
“Right now, what’s most important to me is continuing to focus on my mental health,” Johnson said in a social media post, “and spending more time with my kids and family.”
In early August, Johnson took a brief sabbatical at the start of the training camp. He was contemplating retirement again, sources close to the situation said, and when he returned he spoke about his aging parents and their health and said that this would likely be his last season.
That should be enough to explain why he walked away two months later. Johnson was still playing at a high level. His 97.2% pass block win rate was tops among all NFL tackles through three games.
Stoutland had long placed his tackle on an island with little assistance in pass protection. It’s a luxury Johnson’s combination of speed, agility, strength and size allowed the Eagles. No one had a quicker get-off. Stoutland once compared his foot movement to “a hovercraft.”
But Johnson was looking forward to the help Kuper’s blocking scheme would afford him. He might have been most excited about the new run scheme. He had advocated for more running for years and, along with guard Landon Dickerson, nudged Sirianni into altering the offense in 2024 when the Eagles started 2-2.
» READ MORE: Lane Johnson is retiring. Let’s look back at some of his most memorable moments with the Eagles.
Coincidentally, they’re 2-2 again. But a similar shift will be difficult in a way that goes beyond losing arguably the Eagles’ pound-for-pound best player.
Johnson pushed coaches for more under-center, play-action in recent seasons. It might have put some stress on his relationship with Stoutland, who had built and had great success with the inside zone, shotgun-heavy run offense.
But defenses had picked up on the Eagles’ tendencies after winning Super Bowl LIX and they were stacking the box to stop Saquon Barkley and the run game. They needed an offense that would keep opponents off balance and Sirianni knew as much.
It just hasn’t surfaced yet this season. In fact, the Eagles have been under center less than they were previously in the Sirianni-Jalen Hurts era and have been even more inefficient based on success rate analytics. They’re last in the league in both under-center and play-action, which could explain why Mannion hasn’t done it as much.
“We believe in it,” Mannion insisted on Tuesday.
It’s unclear if Johnson still had belief. The Eagles narrowly won their first two games over teams that are now 1-3 and lost in a 27-7 blowout to the Bears in Week 3. Johnson, still dressed in his uniform, was the first to answer questions when reporters entered the postgame locker room in Chicago last week.
He didn’t blame the new scheme. He said nothing to suggest he was unhappy.
“We just didn’t capitalize,” he said about the offense. “Frustrating.”
Six days later, he was inactive for the Rams game for reasons the Eagles cited as “personal.” Rookie Markel Bell took his place, and despite the team’s overall effort in spite of Johnson’s absence and many injuries, L.A. rallied to win, 24-20.
The Eagles lost for many reasons, but their record without Johnson since he was drafted fell to 18-30 (.375). Their overall success since 2013 can be attributed to many, but a record of 122-63-1 (.659) when he’s in the lineup can’t be overstated.
Bell has potential, but he wasn’t drafted until the third round for a reason. The hope was that the 6-foot-9, 346-pound tackle would get a year to develop under Johnson. But the Eagles did too much wishing and hoping when it came to their offensive line.
» READ MORE: From Jeff Stoutland to former teammates and NFL stars, tributes roll in upon Lane Johnson’s retirement
They’ve known for years that Johnson could retire at any moment. They knew Dickerson thought about retirement himself this offseason after years of injury and is now on injured reserve. They knew that center Cam Jurgens, after returning too soon from back surgery last season, had lost confidence.
But rather than address the O-line, general manager Howie Roseman drafted wide receiver Makai Lemon and tight end Eli Stowers in the first two rounds. They have a few promising reserves in current center Drew Kendall and backup interior lineman Willie Lampkin to go along with Bell.
And they have, of course, a very good left tackle in Jordan Mailata and a serviceable right guard in Tyler Steen. But the unit is often only as strong as its weakest link, which has been evident so far this season.
Johnson knew as well as anyone the mental toll the position can take on O-linemen. And he was one of the best to ever do it.
“It doesn’t change the feelings I felt,” he said to The Inquirer in 2022. “I feel like I got a [bleeper] in the bushes … that’s looking to kill me all the time. I feel paranoid. But at the same time, that’s what makes you good at your job.
“The anxiety is a good thing. It’s going to bring the best version of yourself out, but it’s going to come at a price.”
» READ MORE: How the Eagles’ Lane Johnson draws on his mother’s strength: ‘We’ve been through the road of hard knocks’
Johnson increasingly missed the time away from his parents — David, a former bull rider, and his mother, Ray Anne Carpentier, who has been living with Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 2023. He wanted to be a more present father to his three children, who have lived with his ex-wife in Oklahoma. Johnson also remarried in the spring.
“I just want to be a good dad,” he once said to The Inquirer, “and be there to support them and be a normal-ass dude.”
The game kept him from doing that, as did the stress it placed upon his mental health. Football brought him fame and great wealth. It’ll someday land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But Johnson doesn’t have to worry about the monster waiting to assault him anymore. He conquered that fear for almost 14 seasons. He doesn’t owe the game or anyone anything. It’s time to start living.
“When I’m done playing I want to kill my identity with sports and just try to find something new,” Johnson said in 2022. “Because I feel like I’ve been focused on sports since I was a young kid. Find another hobby, find something that’s outside of [football].
“Start over, I guess. … Or I can go f— off and fish.”
Different year, different offensive coordinator, yet still, it feels like Déjà vu all over again. The Eagles had little margin for error Sunday vs. the Rams because of injuries. They played hard despite being shorthanded, but in the end, couldn’t put the Rams away, mainly because of poor execution on offense. Why hasn’t Sean Mannion's scheme clicked? How culpable are head coach Nick Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts in the offensive rut the Eagles find themselves in? The Inquirer's Jeff McLane and David Murphy analyze the fallout from the 24-20 loss to L.A. Listen here.
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