Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson suffered an MCL tear in his left knee during the team’s win over Jacksonville in London today, per Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). The Eagles are on a bye next week, but Johnson nonetheless could miss an extended period of time. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets that Johnson, who was already dealing with an ankle injury (to the same leg), will be sidelined for about a month. McLane adds that the 2017 First Team All-Pro will have further testing when the team returns to Philadelphia.
Johnson, whom the team selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2013 draft, is having another excellent season. He is currently ranked as the 10th-best tackle in the league, per Pro Football Focus, and the Eagles — whose running game is already sputtering — will miss him dearly during his absence.
Johnson’s fellow bookend, left tackle Jason Peters, also left today’s game with a head injury. Though Peters did return to action, he has not been playing to his usual standards this year, and he is dealing with other health issues of his own (plus, he is 36 and is clearly on the tail end of his career).
There have been no trade rumors surrounding tackles in advance of Tuesday’s trade deadline, and the Eagles will likely ask Halapoulivaati Vaitai to fill in at right tackle while Johnson is out.
Johnson signed a lucrative five-year extension in January 2016, which was restructured (to his benefit) last March. He is under club control through 2021.
Came to OU as a TE and converted to one of the best tackles in the league….
Get well soon LJ!
I thought he went there as a QB converted to TE and then OT?
He was never gonna play qb at OU. Might have played it in h.s.
Played it in college.
“If you follow OU football, I don’t have to convince you of this. You know.
You surely recall how Johnson showed up in coach Bob Stoops’ 2009 recruiting class after everyone else, as a one-season quarterback from Eckert’s Kilgore (Texas) College program who — I still have it in my notes — completed 32-of-61 passes for 510 yards, three touchdowns and seven interceptions in the fall of ’08.
How Stoops originally saw Johnson as more Joe Jon Finley than Jammal Brown, a lanky, athletic high school quarterback who could grow into the tight end position.
How Johnson redshirted in 2009, switched to defensive end mid-2010, got caught in depth chart traffic there, and switched back over to offense when OU starting tackle Jarvis Jones tore his ACL.”
Thank you for checking your notes.
How fun is that Lane??
Karma is a bitch.
It sure is
“Karma”??? Because his opinion on the patriots differs from yours??? Being happy to see someone injured makes you a special kinda asshole.
Hope he had a fun season at least
He has and with not being able to play for awhile he’ll be able to wear that Super Bowl Champions ring more than usual…
Eagles have key areas to shore up and OT is now one of the biggest. Wonder if they could check in on the Colts with an offer of the Ravens 2ND rounder and their own pick in the fourth in exchange for OT Le’Raven Clark and CB Pierre Desir?