As Eagles RT Lane Johnson announces retirement, one number captures his stunning impact

Despite its immense popularity, the NFL has never coined a statistic to rival baseball’s wins above replacement (WAR) metric.

No one number tells a fan how valuable their team’s roster member is, and certain positions in the NFL are far more difficult to quantify than others.

Visit newsbetting.cv for more information.

At the line of scrimmage, and particularly among offensive linemen and defensive tackles, basic football accounting barely scratches the surface of explaining a player’s impact.

But for years, one split has defined Lane Johnson: the Eagles’ record with vs. without him. As the six-time Pro Bowl right tackle announced his retirement Tuesday, that number seemed to speak loudly.

Johnson played 171 games for the Philadelphia Eagles from when they selected him fourth overall in the 2013 NFL Draft through last Monday’s game at Chicago. The Eagles won a whopping 65.8% of those games (112-58-1) with Johnson anchoring their vaunted line.

Track the 46 games across those 13-plus seasons that Johnson hasn’t played? The Eagles' win percentage plummets to 39.1% (18-28).

So for years, presiding wisdom has said: If the NFL created an equivalent WAR metric, Johnson would pace the charts.

The Eagles drafted Lane Johnson with the fourth overall pick in 2013. He ends his NFL career after playing in 171 regular-season games Kevin Sabitus via Getty Images

Johnson, who has spoken publicly about his lingering mental health challenges, announced his retirement on Tuesday after missing the Eagles’ Sunday loss to the Los Angeles Rams for what head coach Nick Sirianni described as “a personal matter.”

He retires as a two-time first-team All-Pro and a two-time Super Bowl champion. 

“Lane excelled under multiple coaching staffs, maintaining an elite level of play throughout his entire career,” Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. “His combination of talent, strength, athleticism and intelligence made him a truly unique player in this league, and there is no doubt in my mind that one day he will be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”

The Eagles selected his expected successor, the 6-foot-9 Markel Bell, in the third round of this year’s draft.

Bell started Sunday in place of Johnson and played all 61 offensive snaps in the 24-20 loss to the Rams. He recovered a fumble after Jalen Hurts was strip-sacked and drew one illegal formation penalty.

Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion said Bell has “been working his tail off” and “ready to go all year.”

“By no means did he play a perfect game, but he did some really good things,” Sirianni told reporters on Monday. “I think that watching the tape with the team today, with some of the things that we show, he got some really good movement on some double teams and second level stuff that we were able to show and highlight and point out for his teammates to see. Like anybody in this game of football, you never pitch a perfect game. There are things that we got to correct as well. 

“I thought he was solid.”

What will Philadelphia miss without Johnson moving forward?

When the Eagles face the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday morning, they’ll do so with several offensive injuries and now a depth drop at right tackle.

Even at 36 years old this season, Johnson ranked among the best offensive tackles in pass blocking. Johnson won 92% of his pass-block sets (73 of 79) through three weeks, per ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric, second in the league only to the Las Vegas Raiders’ Kolton Miller. He won 92% of the time despite facing double teams on 49% of his sets.

Opponents knew his 6-6, 325-pound frame and 35 1/4 -inch arms, per his scouting combine measurements, created a length-athleticism combination difficult to thwart.

“Seemed like he was the first ‘right tackle with true left tackle traits,’” one defensive coach who faced Johnson recently told Yahoo Sports on condition of anonymity. “Seemed like the Eagles and Lane were trendsetters in terms of valuing the right tackle. Typically, top right tackles were better run blockers than pass blockers.

“But Lane was different.”

Tuesday, Johnson announced his intentions were different than they’d been to start the season. After telling reporters during training camp that he planned to finish out this season, his emotions and priorities shifted.

“I deeply wanted to gut it out for one more year; to take the field with my brothers for one last season,” Johnson said in a statement. “But after a lot of reflection, I’ve realized that my personal and family priorities in my life have changed. Right now, it is critical that I focus on my mental health.

“I owe it to my teammates, coaches, the organizations and the fans to have my head and heart 100 percent in the game. And right now my heart is telling me that it’s time to say goodbye to football.”

Read full story at source