
The retirement of Lane Johnson this week sent shockwaves across the Philadelphia Eagles—the kind of shockwaves that aren't exactly easy to recover from.
But as Philadelphia prepares to leave for its trip to London, the team must find a way to move on from losing one of the greatest right tackles in sports history.
Heading into the weekend, there are three key losers from a decision like the one Johnson made, and one obvious winner.
Before Johnson retired, he had been very complimentary of Bell. The third-round rookie out of Miami showed spurts of quality play in his first NFL start last week, but will be tested more than ever going forward. There's no veteran behind him to help him learn from a mistake. While he won't be on a metaphorical island, this is as good a chance as any for him to prove he can be another future star at right tackle moving forward.
At the very least, Philadelphia will get a close view on what they have in their rookie tackle.
The numbers are what they are. With Johnson, the Eagles are 122-63-1. Without him, they are 18-30.
Many Eagles quarterbacks played with Johnson. Hurts, as the current starter, carries the weight of the burden of trying to keep the team's winning mindset without their longime leader. Hurts has struggled to work within the confines of the team's new offensive system. It's going to get objectively harder over the next several weeks.
If Hurts can keep the team afloat, it will be a massive feather in the cap of the franchise quarterback. If not, Johnson's retirement may have set the stage for a full retool coming for Philly.
Even at quarterback.
Sirianni's philosophy has been clear from the very beginning:
Allow your talented players to make talented plays and win games. Scheme takes a backseat to talent. Some years, that philosophy has worked. Other years, it hasn't.
Philadelphia is 2-2 now. The talent level has taken a major step back. Sirianni's overreliance on talent over scheme has put this team in a situation they can't dig themselves out of. With Johnson gone, the offensive line is expected to take a major hit. With it, the rest of the group. Sirianni has been one of the most successful coaches in team history.
But it's clear without stars like Johnson, there are going to be serious questions about Sirianni's future going forward.
Right guard Tyler Steen has not had a bad year. On the contrary, he's been arguably Philadelphia's most consistent lineman on the team. That said, there are still some questions to his game that could be brought out without Johnson to help him.
In many occasions, an elite tackle can mask some of the deficiencies from a guard. Steen not having the ability to trust Johnson, and instead playing alongside a rookie, isn't exactly the best thing for an up-and-coming lineman.
Steen could still play well, but he doesn't have the same anchor behind him to protect him anymore.
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