Jalen Hurts, Jordan Mailata wish Lane Johnson well as they bid longtime teammate goodbye: ‘A lot to process’
General manager Howie Roseman and coach Nick Sirianni also spoke about Johnson's meaning to the team on Wednesday.
Jalen Hurts’ comfort level with Lane Johnson, his right tackle since he stepped into the starting quarterback role in 2020, was bigger than the game of football.
Both players hail from Texas — Hurts from Houston, Johnson from Groveton, which is just over 100 miles north. Johnson even recorded his only career touchdown reception from Hurts on a play called “East Texas” in 2021 against the New York Giants.
The Eagles brought them together, but their backgrounds brought them even closer, Hurts said on Wednesday.
“Being from Texas, the relationship that we have, and that’s a huge comfort level,” Hurts said. That’s someone that you’ve played with. You went to bat with. You know them, they know you.
“And there’s a shift there.”
Johnson, 36, announced his retirement on Tuesday after 14 years in the NFL exclusively spent in Philadelphia, marking a shift in Hurts’ right-side protector for the first time in his Eagles career. Together, they won a Super Bowl in 2024. While Hurts and the Eagles will move forward without Johnson, the sixth-year starting quarterback acknowledged nothing can replace “all the things that we’ve accomplished together, the memories.”
In his retirement announcement, Johnson noted his decision was fueled by a desire to focus on his mental health and spend more time with his children and the rest of his family.
Hurts acknowledged that he is processing Johnson’s in-season retirement from two perspectives — as a player and as a friend.
“It’s a different thing for me to process in the middle of the season as a player,” Hurts said. “I think as a person, I wish to see him smiling again. I wish to see him happy and at peace, and that’s what I sincerely wish for him. So as a player, hard to … not hard to process, but really hard to focus on, considering the urgency that I have to win."
Jordan Mailata, Johnson’s teammate at left tackle for seven seasons, hadn’t yet processed Johnson’s retirement when he was asked about it on Tuesday during a scheduled appearance on 94 WIP. Like Hurts, Mailata also acknowledged how much he appreciated his time with Johnson, all while wishing him well in his mental health.
“I just keep thinking about all the good times we had,” Mailata said. “What an opportunity I had to play with Lane and cherish all those moments with him. I hope he’s OK. There’s a lot to process in 24 hours. And you kind of think back to how you could have helped more, or what you could have done better in the time. That’s what you kind of think.
“But it’s not about me. It’s about Lane and celebrating his career and his accomplishments that he’s done with his time in the NFL.”
Johnson was decorated throughout his 14 seasons in the NFL. He won two Super Bowls. He earned two All-Pro nods and was named to six Pro Bowls. His 171 career regular-season games ranks eighth in franchise history and second among Eagles offensive linemen behind Jason Kelce.
Howie Roseman had no reservations about sharing his prediction for Johnson’s next accolade.
“A first-ballot Hall of Famer player,” Roseman said. “Huge, huge part of our success. Just someone you never took for granted every day. Practice, games, just felt totally honored that he was our right tackle for as long as he was. And the relationship, just having him around and the relationship we had through all those years and through the things we had to go through with our team and what was going on with all of us personally, just we’ll miss him and just very appreciative of him and his contributions to our success.”
Nick Sirianni echoed a similar sense of appreciation for Johnson, both on and off the field. The Eagles head coach said that he loves Johnson and “everything that he stood for and everything at he is.”
At the same time, the onus is on Sirianni to guide the team forward in the absence of one of the best players in franchise history, especially amid a two-game losing streak. In two days, they will travel to London to face the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Come Sunday, they’ll likely feature a new-look offensive line with Markel Bell making his second start at right tackle. Without Cam Jurgens, who was traded to the Baltimore Ravens on Wednesday, the team could turn to Willie Lampkin at left guard.
As the team forges ahead, Sirianni said his message to the team on Wednesday centered on the importance of “staying together” and “locking arms” in the face of adversity.
“Every adversity that I’ve been through in my life, they’re not comfortable at the time, but they produce the most growth,” Sirianni said. “I am truly, truly thankful for the adversities that I go through, even though they’re not comfortable at the time, and what a message I have to be able to send to the team, my kids, of that.
“I think that just being able to relay that and that message, and like I said, lock arms and let’s go.”
Different year, different offensive coordinator, yet still, it feels like Déjà vu all over again. The Eagles had little margin for error Sunday vs. the Rams because of injuries. They played hard despite being shorthanded, but in the end, couldn’t put the Rams away, mainly because of poor execution on offense. Why hasn’t Sean Mannion's scheme clicked? How culpable are head coach Nick Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts in the offensive rut the Eagles find themselves in? The Inquirer's Jeff McLane and David Murphy analyze the fallout from the 24-20 loss to L.A. Listen here.
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