It didn’t catch me. It caught me off guard! (Boooooooooooooo.)
But, no, I wouldn’t say it was a *total* surprise. Johnson has weighed in on retirement in the past, including returning in the offseason and then apparently again in training camp while he spent an excused absence from the team. On the way back, he talked about his changing values and how 2026 will likely be his last season.
It was surprising to see Johnson scratched for Week 4 with so little advance notice. But then there were whispers that he might retire. And he did. Which is a really big deal because he’s an amazing player and the Eagles are always worse off when he’s unavailable.
I wrote about the offensive line outlook of the Eagles in more depth at BGN, so, I shamelessly plug that in here.
Of course, the Eagles have also traded Cam Jurgens since then. He hasn’t played much at left guard, which isn’t surprising since he’s literally never played that position before. The Eagles moved him to that spot out of desperation after benching Landon Dickerson, who looked primed in the season opener, after Week 1.
The Eagles’ starting offensive line against the Jags could look something like this:
LT Jordan Mailata
LG Willie Lampkin
C Drew Kendall
RG Tyler Steen
RT Markel Bell
I can’t say with 100% certainty that this will be the configuration. There was some talk that they could move Kendall to left guard and put the smaller Lampkin at center. But it would be strange to move Kendall to guard because most of his experience has come at center and the Eagles could have kept Jurgens at center and put Kendall at guard before. But, who knows. Also, Kendall apparently missed Wednesday’s practice, so his situation is something to continue to monitor.
Mailata and Steen must be locked in their posts. Rookie Bell will likely start at right tackle … but there’s a non-zero chance that veteran swing tackle (and former Jag!) Fred Johnson could be a factor.
Fred Johnson and Micah Morris are currently the two backup blockers on the roster. The Eagles will likely look to call up some of their practice squad offensive linemen (John Ojukwu, Jake Majors, Kiran Amegadjie).