Howie Roseman Responds To Questions About Two Players' Futures With Eagles

PHILADELPHIA – Howie Roseman isn’t budging from the stance he took at November's trade deadline when it comes to A.J. Brown and one of the top offseason storylines that has already begun to percolate – will the receiver stay or be sent packing?

“We talked about this I think at the trade deadline last time I talked,” said the Eagles general manager on Thursday when asked if he was open to trading him. “It is hard to find great players in the NFL and A.J.'s a great player. I think from my perspective, that's what we're going out and looking for when we go out here in free agency and in the draft is trying to find great players who love football, and he's that guy. I think that would be my answer.”

The answer on Lane Johnson was a bit … hedged?

When he and head coach Nick Sirianni were asked if the right tackle had given them any indication that he would return for a 14th NFL season or retire, they looked at each other, perhaps deciding on who would answer the query or what they should say. Roseman took it.

“I think all those conversations that we have of our players are between us and anything they're doing,” he said. “I'm not saying that negatively or positively, but anyone you ask about, I think that that's their business to discuss. Obviously, you're talking about a Hall of Fame player who’s been a huge, huge part of any of our success that we've had, and when you watch him play, he's still playing at an elite level.”

Does Anybody Really Know What Lane Johnson Will Do?

If the answer was yes, why be so cagey? Maybe they don’t really know, because maybe Johnson himself is on the fence about what to do.

Even before he stopped talking to reporters – he hasn’t talked to the media since Oct. 9 in New York - he would go back and forth. Ask him one day about his future, and he would say he hopes to play until he’s 40, if healthy, and that his body had never felt better. Ask him another day, and he would hesitate and say this might be it.

Clearly, he is conflicted.

Johnson missed the final eight games of the season while trying to recover from a Lisfranc injury. He practiced in the week leading up to the wild-card game against the San Francisco 49ers, lending excitement to the locker room in hopes that he would make his first appearance in a game since the injury happened on Nov. 16. Instead, he was still dealing with pain and swelling and ruled out.

Set to turn 36 in May, who is to say he will want to rehab the injury? Who’s to say that the foot will ever be healthy again, or maybe surgery will be needed to get it back to as close 100 percent as it can be? And who’s to say if he does return, will make it through the year without something else happening?

Left tackle Jordan Mailata thinks he knows, but even he isn’t 100 percent sure.

“I’m expecting him back,” he said during the team’s locker cleanout day. “But whatever happens, happens.”

Johnson is under contract through 2027, which is a positive indicator that he could return. Plus, Johnson is such a competitor that it’s hard to imagine wanting to end his career after playing just half of a season.

Who really knows, though? Maybe not even Roseman or Sirianni.

More NFL: Eagles Give Details On Next Offensive Coordinator