One by one, the Eagles kept ruling key players out of Sunday’s game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Friday, it was receiver DeVonta Smith. On Saturday, it was receiver A.J. Brown. Now on Sunday, it was right tackle Lane Johnson.
Those are three key ingredients the Eagles have used the past two years to win a lot of games, getting to the Super Bowl two seasons ago. With Johnson in the lineup, they have won 88 games. Without him, they are 14-22.
So you understand the mountain the Eagles have to climb without three key pieces on the offensive side of the ball.
Fred Johnson will start in place of Lane Johnson, who was listed as questionable on the Eagles' Friday injury report. Johnson made the trip to Tampa but was unable to clear the league's concssuion protocol in time to play.
This will be Fred Johnson’s first start since the 2021 season with the Cincinnati Bengals, and just his ninth start since joining the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2019.
Fred Johnson played 54 snaps in relief of Lane Johnson in last week’s 15-12 win over the New Orleans Saints. He played well enough to earn praise from his head coach, Nick Sirianni.
“Fred is obviously very talented and has something you can't teach: massive size and strength and athleticism,” he said. “He came here and got a fresh start here, and he's worked his butt off.”
Johnson has also taken to the coaching of line coach Jeff Stoutland.
“Stout pushes him,” said Sirianni. “I told Stout (earlier in the week), when we were coming home on the plane, I’m like, ‘Man, I enjoy going to your – once a week I've been going to the offensive line meeting room. I have really enjoyed going to the offensive line meeting room and listening to that.’ And listening to Stout coach those guys, and how those guys react, and how those guys respond.
“I know he's pushed Fred. I heard him push Fred on Thursday in that meeting room, just to get better. ….all he cares about is Fred getting better, and then Fred putting in the time, putting in the work, putting in all the things that he does to get better.
“Now Fred just has to build upon that. That's a great stepping stone to build upon, and just ride his momentum right there to just continue to play better football.”
