Eagles' Lane Johnson retires from NFL due to personal reasons after Week 4 absence

Philadelphia Eagles six-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Lane Johnson announced his immediate retirement from the NFL on Tuesday.

Johnson was a surprise scratch from the Eagles' Week 4 lineup. The team listed him as inactive due to personal reasons and did not disclose specific details. His retirement comes just two days after he missed the 24-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

In his announcement, Johnson said it is "critical" that he focuses on his mental health at this moment.

Over the final years of his career, Johnson opened up about his mental health struggles and revealed that he battled anxiety dating back to his freshman year of college in 2008. Earlier this year, he missed multiple training camp practices for personal reasons and said he felt the pull of off-field responsibilities weighing on him. In turn, Johnson said in August that 2026 would likely be his final year in the NFL.

Prior to his offseason announcement that he was trending toward retirement, a season-ending injury 10 games into the 2025 campaign raised questions about Johnson's long-term future in the league. He signed a contract extension in May 2025 that was set to keep him with the Eagles through 2027.

Johnson stands among the greatest offensive linemen of the 21st century. He is a two-time Super Bowl champion and five-time All-Pro, and the former No. 4 overall pick out of Oklahoma ends his career as an Eagles legend. He spent his entire career in Philadelphia and was a stalwart in the trenches for the franchise from 2013 through the third game of the 2026 campaign.

The impact Johnson made on Philadelphia's offense was undeniable. Entering this season, the Eagles averaged 0.04 EPA per play with Johnson on the field (good for the third-best mark in the NFL) and -0.05 EPA per play without him (which made the offense the sixth-worst).

Exemplifying why Johnson is widely considered to be one of the greatest right tackles in NFL history was the streak from Week 11 of the 2020 season to Week 9 in 2023, where he set a record for consecutive snaps without allowing a sack. Johnson kept his quarterbacks upright across a stretch of 1,405 straight pass-blocking snaps. During that timeframe, he set a separate record with 961 snaps without a knockdown.

Johnson is a strong candidate for enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and will be eligible in five years.

Teammates, coaches and others react to Lane Johnson's retirement