The decision here follows Johnson's announcement in the summer that the 2026 season would be his final one. Citing family and life balance, Johnson talked prior to the start of the regular season about the next steps in his life.
"As you get older, things change in your life, priorities. Your children get older, your parents get older, it just puts things into perspective," he said. "It's looking like this is potentially going to be probably my last year just because I am getting to that point. Those priorities away from football are starting to merge. I love everything about this game and am preparing for it, but this is kind of where I'm at in my career."
Health was not a question mark for Johnson after he recovered from a foot injury that ended his 2025 campaign prematurely. Johnson said, "I still feel I can be a premier tackle in this league. My movement, everything, feels good. I just need to stay healthy and keep stacking days."
He started the first three games of the 2026 season, playing 100 percent of the offensive snaps before missing Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Rams due to "personal reasons." Johnson was still on top of his game, as he ranked first among all NFL offensive tackles in both pass block grade and pass block win rate prior to Week 4.
"I just want to be known as obviously a great player, somebody that was always nice to kids, nice to people in the building. And hopefully somebody that helped elevate the guys, was a good teammate and fun to be around," Johnson said the day he announced that 2026 would be his final season. "I want to be seen as a guy that continually got better as he aged.
"Where some guys when they hit 30 kind of nosedive. Kind of opposite of me. It's lucky, man. Not everybody lands at a good organization where you have success, and you have the opportunity to stack year upon year. I'm really fortunate, and I'm trying to soak in these last six or seven months."
From a football standpoint, the Eagles will now turn to rookie third-round draft pick Markel Bell, who started on Sunday against the Rams and played the entire game against a very good Los Angeles defensive front.
Bell is in line to start his second game on Sunday in London against Jacksonville.
"I think Markel did some really good things," Head Coach Nick Sirianni said on Monday. "Just like all of us, we want plays back also. By no means did he play a perfect game, but he did some really good things. I think that watching the tape with the team, 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've got to correct as well. I thought he was solid."