PHILADELPHIA -- Lane Johnson's retirement was a certainty, but not because it was imminent.
Johnson initially framed the 2026 season as a farewell tour. The All-Pro right tackle had earned one. No player for the Philadelphia Eagles in the last 20 years had toiled for his city and franchise with such consistent greatness as Johnson had. He deserved to end his career on his terms.
He deserved to pack up his two Super Bowl rings -- the first ever in the team's history -- and retire to his homestead in the Delaware Valley, to his family in Oklahoma, to his hometown of Groveton, Texas. To wherever he damn well pleased.
But whenever? A midseason announcement after a sudden Sunday absence? Pockets of Philadelphians will grapple with an immediate conflict that will pass with time. Johnson -- like franchise pillars Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox and Jason Peters before him -- knew better than anyone that this is a sports city that expects its players to give everything.
And Johnson did. In 2021, he returned from a three-game leave of absence after battling anxiety, depression and the withdrawal symptoms associated with cycling off SSRI antidepressant medication. He became a mental health advocate at a time when NFL stars were beginning to speak openly about the subject. His final five full seasons were among his best. He amassed three Pro Bowl selections, three second-team All-Pro selections and a first-team All-Pro selection. He played through four years of injuries -- a torn abdominal tendon, a groin strain, an ankle injury, a concussion, a shoulder injury and a season-ending Lisfranc sprain -- while ushering in the next generation of offensive linemen.
The Eagles believed Johnson might mentor one more. General manager Howie Roseman spent their 2026 third-round selection on Markel Bell, a 6-foot-9, 346-pound offensive tackle whom Roseman called "a passion player" for the Eagles in the NFL Draft. Bell had the size, length and agility the Eagles saw in Johnson, Peters and Jordan Mailata. But an organization that fosters mentorship delayed a substantial investment in a potential successor for multiple cycles.
It must now call upon Bell to backfill Johnson earlier than expected. Cam Jurgens had Kelce; Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter had Cox; and Mailata had Peters and Johnson.
"Lane was the last of the old guard," Mailata said Tuesday during his prescheduled call on 94.1 WIP in Philadelphia, within an hour of Johnson's announcement. "Now he's gone."
The radio hosts responded by telling Mailata what the starting left tackle has long known to be true: He is now the position group's most tenured leader. Mailata, a second-team All-Pro in 2024, has fielded consistent excellence over the last three seasons without national recognition. He was voted a team captain this year for the third consecutive season. He is among those carrying forward his memories of learning from former longtime offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland and applying them to a new system under first-time offensive coordinator Sean Mannion and offensive line coach Chris Kuper.
"Starts with me," Mailata said. "I've got to come in with high energy. Win, lose or draw."
Johnson's sudden retirement comes as the Mannion-led Eagles offense is mired in dysfunction. A fledgling system founded on wide-zone runs and play-action passes has been consistently stagnant. Johnson's departure compounds the depth issues the offensive line was already absorbing with left guard Landon Dickerson on injured reserve. Jurgens moved from center to left guard, a position he'd never played before, and is now in concussion protocol after self-reporting symptoms after Sunday's brutal loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Drew Kendall, a 2025 fifth-round pick, is expected to make his fourth straight start at center against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in London. Bell is expected to play right tackle again after his spot start against the Rams. Fred Johnson, the team's swing tackle in 2024 and 2025, is still managing a knee injury that sidelined him last week. If Jurgens does not clear concussion protocol in time, backup interior lineman Willie Lampkin, a former undrafted rookie in 2025, could be next in line. Micah Morris, a sixth-round rookie, is also available after logging his first offensive snap against the Rams.
"We have a great group of young guys coming through that are able to step up," Mailata told WIP. "What better way -- and I think it's so Philadelphian -- that they get a chance to prove themselves. That's a Philadelphia story if I've ever heard one. They get an opportunity now to earn their keep. And I think with the coaches that we have here, the scheme that we have, we're going to get this ship going. I truly believe that."
The Eagles' offensive line has long been relied upon to keep the ship afloat. Managing the transition from the old guard to the new was always one of Roseman's primary objectives. Signing Dickerson and Jurgens to four-year extensions in 2024 and 2025, respectively, was meant to at least solidify the interior. Roseman still spent two 2024 late-round picks on interior linemen Trevor Keegan and Dylan McMahon, then three 2025 late-round picks on Kendall and offensive tackles Myles Hinton and Cameron Williams. That only Kendall remains on the roster underscores the low success rate of low investments and emphasizes why Roseman spent a third-round selection on Bell.
Before Lane Johnson's retirement, Roseman was already focused on planning around health concerns with Jurgens and Dickerson. Jurgens, who underwent back surgery after the 2024 season, and Dickerson, who underwent more than a dozen surgeries in his six-year career, traveled to Colombia in the offseason for stem cell therapy treatments. Roseman told reporters at the end of training camp that if they'd given him truth serum and asked him what he was looking for in training camp, he would have told them, "How our interior offensive line panned out."
Roseman was pleased with Kendall's, Lampkin's and Morris' development. Along with Bell, the young linemen's collective deployment will showcase this week's worst-case scenario: that the Eagles at the very least had the bodies to backfill. The offense's sudden reliance on its linemen's depth will also test a zone-run scheme that is supposed to be offensive-line friendly.
The interior hit is expected to be temporary. Before news of Jurgens' concussion became public Monday, coach Nick Sirianni told reporters he had no intention of making a change at left guard. It stands to reason Jurgens will resume there after concussion protocol -- at least until Dickerson returns from injured reserve. Dickerson said on his radio show in September that he "wouldn't have spent seven figures in the offseason" on his recovery if he intended to retire.
There is considerably more weight on Bell's shoulders. He is now thrust into replacing a franchise pillar who embodied the team's biggest advantage. Including the playoffs, the Eagles went 122-63-1 with Lane Johnson on the field. They went 18-30 without him.
"My piece of advice was something I told myself when people expected me to fill the shoes of the great J.P., Jason Peters," Mailata said. "I wasn't here to fill his shoes. I'm here to make my own. This here is again another opportunity for me to remind Markel that I understand what you're going through.
"The one thing that you can do now is create your own shoes. You're not here to fill Lane Johnson's shoes. You're here to make your own. You're here to create your own legacy and your own story, and that's all we want. We just want you to focus on that. You don't have to be Lane Johnson."
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
