Inspired By LeBron James, Eagles Lane Johnson Will Play Until He Can't

PHILADELPHIA – Lane Johnson put pen to paper earlier this week, signing a contract that will pay him through 2027. That’s three more seasons for a potential Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman who will turn 35 in May.

Can he make it that far?

“It’s very possible,” said the Eagles’ right tackle sin e he was drafted fourth overall in 2013. “I think when you get to this stage of your career, you take it year by year. Physically, I feel really good.

"I was thinking a few years ago when I was coming back from all these surgeries, I thought my body was gonna start going downhill, but I think with how strength and conditioning program we have here, the stuff we do in the offseason, I feel really good.”

As an only child, Johnson embraces the locker room camaraderie, saying “I love my football family…my brothers are here.” So, to that end, he will do his part to make sure his body his ready. That’s all he can do, the rest is up to fate.

“As a younger player, I think I had to get stronger to deal with some of these bull rushes and especially from Ryan Kerrigan (Washington’s great pass rusher),” he said. “After that, I just really focused on what I needed to attack each offseason to become a better player. Year after year, I feel I’ve progressed. For me it’s about being strong and a lot of it is about being flexible and being able to bend. A lot of players as they age, they lose that ability to explode and burst.”

Johnson added that he has begun looking at athletes such as LeBron James, who is still going strong in the NBA at age 40, and Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijain Lopez Nunez, who won an unprecedented fifth gold medal at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris a month before turning 42.

“There are people that are able to go past the barriers or perceived barriers, so I look to guys and athletes like that as inspiration just to know that it’s possible,” he said.

If Johnson plays through 2027, he will have been in the organization for 15 seasons, the same amount of time Brandon Graham was with the Eagles before retiring earlier in the week.

Graham left as the organization’s all-time leader in games played with 206. Johnson will head into this season having played in 158 career game, so he could have a chance to surpass Graham’s record.

“I never wanted to go to another team,” he said. “The Eagles have always been here for me, good or bad, and so they’ve been pivotal in my development as a player and as a person off the field,” he said. “I couldn’t be more excited staying here. It’s very rare that a person can stay with one team 10-plus years. My goal is to play well throughout my middle to maybe upper 30s, which I’m looking forward to.

“I love the challenge of being an older player and the routine you have to keep up with. I think that’s what I love most about football is just the conflict and the constant trying to improve.”

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