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Next Man Up?

The Philadelphia Eagles currently have just seven players who are 30 years or older. They are, in order of age, RT Lane Johnson (35), LS Charley Hughlett (35), OT Kendall Lamm (33), CB Parry Nickerson (30), OL Matt Pryor (30), Dallas Goedert (30), and Jake Elliott (30).

A widely discussed topic this offseason has been how young players will replace departing starters like Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Mekhi Becton, and others. Here we'll take a look at what kind of succession plan the Eagles have in place for each of the aging players still on the roster. Let's do this in order of importance.

Lane Johnson (35)

The Eagles agreed to a one-year contract extension with Johnson back in March. His contract had previously run through the 2026 season. It will now run through the 2027 season.

Johnson just had one of the best seasons of his stellar career, and he said at the end of the season that his body felt good. We can probably trust him on that, as he has been forthright at other times during his career about nagging injuries, notably the ankle injury he suffered during the 2018 season that bothered him for years.

Jason Peters and Andrew Whitworth played into their 40s, and Trent Williams, who turns 37 in July, is still playing at a high level. Johnson is every bit the player and athletic freak of nature as any of those guys. He's one of the best offensive tackles in NFL history. If he doesn't suffer any kind of serious injury, there's little reason to doubt that he can keep playing at a high level for three more seasons.

Succession plan: The Eagles selected a pair of offensive tackles on Day 3 of the 2025 draft in Myles Hinton and Cameron Williams who they believe have "starter" ceilings. They also signed a priority undrafted free agent in Hollin Pierce. To be clear, they are lottery tickets, but the front office hopes that Jeff Stoutland can develop them into good pros. The Eagles should have some time to see if any of them pan out and have a reasonable path to start in the future. If not, then offensive tackle will be near the top of the priority list in the next few drafts.

2026 urgency level: 5/10 scaredy faces. 😱😱😱😱😱

Dallas Goedert (30)

For most of the offseason, it seemed that the Eagles would be parting ways with Goedert, but the two sides agreed on a pay cut, lowering Goedert's 2025 pay from $14 million to $10 million. He had been available for trade all offseason.

Goedert turned 30 in January, but he is still an efficient receiver and an asset as a blocker in the run game. He caught 42 passes for 496 yards and 2 TDs in 2024 across 10 regular-season games. In the playoffs, good things happened when the ball went Goedert's way, as he caught 17 passes on 20 targets for 215 yards (10.8 yards per target) and 1 TD, which happened to be the biggest offensive play of the day in the Wild Card Round against the Packers. He led the team in receiving during the playoffs.

There's no question that the Eagles have a better offense when Goedert is healthy. However, the downside is that Goedert hasn't been able to stay healthy in recent seasons, and he missed seven games in 2024. He missed three games — and all but 3 snaps in another game — early in the season with a hamstring injury. He went on IR later in the year with a knee injury, missing four more games. He also missed three games in 2023 and five games in 2022. That's 15 games missed in the last three seasons.

Succession plan: In the 2025 draft, the Eagles made 10 selections, and surprisingly, none of them were tight ends, despite it being one of the strongest tight end classes in recent memory. They did sign a pair of veteran tight ends in free agency in Harrison Bryant and Kylen Granson.

They are also returning TE2 Grant Calcaterra, a decent enough receiver, but a poor blocker. Calcaterra is playing on the final year of his rookie contract in 2025.

The Eagles could conceivably re-sign Goedert to a new deal next offseason if he is productive and stays reasonably healthy. We'll see. Otherwise, they will very likely be in the market for a new tight end.

2026 urgency level: 7/10 scaredy faces. 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

Jake Elliott (30)

Elliott is pretty safely the best kicker in Eagles franchise history, but after three stellar seasons from 2021-2023, he had a down year in 2024.

He missed 8 field goal attempts in 2024, the same number of misses the previous three years combined. Leading up to the Super Bowl, Elliott had missed 5 kicks in his previous 4 games, but he was a perfect 4/4 on field goals and 4/4 on PATs in the big game.

Turns out there was maybe a good reason why he struggled. According to Beau Allen on Chris Long's Green Light podcast, Elliott was hampered by an injury during the season.

Succession plan: The Eagles said repeatedly throughout Elliott's struggles that they believe in him. He also signed a four-year contract extension last offseason worth $24 million. Still, while the Eagles expect Elliott to bounce back in 2025, if he has another down year they will probably have to at least give him some competition in camp.

2026 urgency level: 2/10 scaredy faces 😱😱

Kendall Lamm (33) and Matt Pryor (30)

We'll lump Lamm and Pryor together, as they are competing for backup jobs along the offensive line with other vets like Darian Kinnard, Kenyon Green, and Brett Toth, not to mention an assortment of rookies.

Succession plan: These types of players are replaceable from year-to-year. Also, while the Eagles hope to develop guys like Hinton and Williams into starters long-term, a more realistic short-term goal would be for one of them to prove that they can be a reliable swing tackle in 2026.

2026 urgency level: 1/10 scaredy faces. 😱

Charley Hughlett (35)

The Eagles actually got older at long snapper this year, moving on from 32-year-old Rick Lovato and signing the 35-year-old Hughlett.

Succession plan: Long snappers are brought in on an as-needed basis. There's no need for a succession plan here, other than to be ready with a list of guys to try out if Hughlett stinks in training camp. Personally, I'd love to chart a long snapper competition in camp, but the Eagles are denying us all that joy.

2026 urgency level: 1/10 scaredy faces. 😱

Parry Nickerson (30)

Nickerson played for Vic Fangio in Miami in 2023, and then stuck on the Eagles' practice squad for the 2024 season. He's a veteran "break glass if needed" player who Fangio seems to trust to some degree.

Succession plan: I'm not going to pretend there's any kind of succession plan for a practice squad guy.