Top 25 Eagles Ranked: Historic Run Paves Lane Johnson to No. 1
PHILADELPHIA - “Do your job.”
The mantra made famous by Bill Belichick in the NFL’s ecosystem perhaps best describes why Philadelphia Eagles' right tackle Lane Johnson was ranked as the No. 1 player on the team by SI.com’s Eagles Today.
Philadelphia has multiple All-Pros, Pro Bowl selections, and even the runner-up for league MVP on what might be the deepest roster in football but no one does their particular job at a higher level than Johnson.
Meanwhile, in a season dotted with career years from Jalen Hurts to Miles Sanders to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith on offense before you get to Haason Reddick, Javon Hargrave, Josh Sweat, T.J. Edwards, James Bradberry, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson on defense, the Eagles’ imposing 6-6, 325-pound lockdown right tackle earned the top spot with what has become his status quo.
Johnson is on an incredible run having not allowed a sack since Week 11 of the 2020 season nor a quarterback hit since Week 7 of the 2021 campaign, according to Pro Football Focus. That means Johnson pitched a shutout in the Eagles’ 2022-23 NFC Championship season, playing in 18 games (15 in the regular season and three in the postseason), and participating in 1,176 offensive snaps.
And he closed things out by shutting down the pass rushes of the New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and Kansas City Chiefs in the postseason while playing through a torn adductor muscle in his core which needed to be repaired surgically days after the Eagles’ 38-35 Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs.
Johnson has accomplished all of that in a pass-happy era against monster rushers like Demarcus Lawrence, Micah Parsons, and Nick Bosa to name just a few all while also overcoming severe anxiety and depression at times.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni often calls Johnson “the best right tackle in the world,” a designation that’s probably not needed because the rest of the world doesn’t play the uniquely American game of football but it also feels right because it seems bigger than the tag of best right tackle in the NFL.
At 33 set to enter his 11th season, Johnson was given another year on his contract and $30 million guaranteed for his handiwork. The No. 4 overall pick back in 2013 is now signed through 2026 when he would be 37 and almost surely will have allowed someone at some time to actually sack the quarterback.
Of course, you never know.
“A lot of my game now is trying to be a smarter player,” Johnson said this offseason. “Whatever you may have in diminished attributes, you can make up with timing and that sort of thing. I’m happy where I’m at — 33 is old but I still feel like I got a few good years left.”
Eagles Today beat writers Ed Kracz and John McMullen put together their own top 25 players independent of each other’s rankings and then assigned point values to the rankings, with 25 points awarded to the player ranked first on each list, 24 to the player ranked second, and so on, with one point going to the player that was put 25th.
The highest ranking from either reporter breaks any ties in the ballot.
Johnson was No. 1 on McMullen’s list and a bit lower at No. 3 for Kracz. He was deadlocked with good friend and teammate Jason Kelce, who was rated No. 3 by McMullen and No. 1 overall by Kracz, forcing Jody McDonald, McMullen’s co-host on the daily BIRDS 365 show on the JAKIB Sports Network, to break the deadlock.
McDonald had Johnson as No. 2 on his personal list and Kelce as No. 3 behind quarterback Jalen Hurts, who finished No. 1 overall.
The final rankings from SI.com’s Eagles Today were:
No. 25 - RB Kenny Gainwell
No. 24 - LB Nicholas Morrow
No. 23 - S Reed Blankenship
No. 22 - S Terrell Edmunds
No. 21 - K Jake Elliott
No. 20 – LB Nakobe Dean
No. 19 – DT Jordan Davis
No. 18 - DT Jalen Carter
No. 17 - RB D’Andre Swift
No. 16 - DT Milton Williams
No. 15 - DT Fletcher Cox
No. 14 - CB Avonte Maddox
No. 13 - DE Brandon Graham
No. 12 - CB James Bradberry
No. 11 - LG Landon Dickerson
No. 10 - LT Jordan Mailata
No. 9 - CB Darius Slay
No. 8 - DE Josh Sweat
No. 7 - TE Dallas Goedert
No. 6 - WR DeVonta Smith
No. 5 - Edge Hasson Reddick
No. 4 - QB Jalen Hurts
No. 3 - WR A.J. Brown
No. 2 - C Jason Kelce
No. 1 - RT Lane Johnson
Johnson was already cleared from his surgery and will be ready for the start of training camp on July 25.
“I’ve been cleared for a little bit now,” he said. “For the first couple of weeks were rough, but after that, it’s one of those rehabs that you have to progress pretty fast because they don’t want you to heal up stiff.”
Known for his famed kick step that some who've been dominated complain is a well-timed, split-second false start, Johnson had the third-highest pass-blocking grade among all NFL OTs last season, according to PFF, and was the only one not to surrender a sack or QB hit.
He was the best player on an offense that scored a franchise-record 477 points and set team records in the high-leverage moments: third-down conversion rate (45.9 percent) and red-zone efficiency (67.8 percent).
A four-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time All-Pro, Johnson has helped redefine the latter for right tackles. Years ago the All-Pro voters would typically just select two left tackles because that was regarded as the more important position.
In Eagles’ lore, which dates back 90 years, Johnson joins potential future Hall of Famer Jason Peters and Hall of Famer Bob Brown as the only offensive tackles to be named to multiple All-Pro teams.
League-wide, Johnson has also been an advocate for helping others improve as the co-creator of the OL Masterminds Summit with his friend and OL coach Duke Manyweather. The sixth edition of the summit was held in Frisco, Tex. earlier this month.
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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
