Eagles welcome Lane Johnson back

FROM A FRIEND'S living room in Mesquite, Texas, Lane Johnson watched the Eagles' offensive line disappear.

Johnson's replacement at right tackle, Allen Barbre, went down for the season with an ankle injury in the opener, on the same series in which left guard Evan Mathis suffered an MCL sprain that will keep him out until November. Then, in Week 3 against Washington, center Jason Kelce got up after a play holding his stomach, Kelce also sidelined at least another month now with an abdominal injury that required surgery.

"It was tough watching the games on Sundays," Johnson said yesterday, following his first practice since being reinstated to the Eagles' roster at the conclusion of his four-game banned-substance suspension. Johnson said knowing you did something that caused your team to have to do without you is "definitely on your mind, and what's worse is seeing your teammates get injured."

Johnson texted with Mathis, got the prognosis for his knee injury, while the Pro Bowl guard was waiting in the locker room for the Jacksonville game to end. He said he missed the Barbre injury, found out about it after the game.

"It wasn't fun," said Johnson, who added that as he watched on TV, he felt "just helpless, a bystander" as he "tried to see what plays they were running, mentally stay in touch."

Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur made it clear before practice that Johnson will start at right tackle this week against the Rams. Asked his plan for Johnson's re-entry, Shurmur said: "Put him in there, let him play."

Had things gone differently, Johnson might get a week to get his feet back under him, but with the Eagles' offense not scoring a point at San Francisco, while managing 22 rushing yards on a dozen carries, Johnson will just have to work out the kinks live, while crouched just to the right of Todd Herremans, who moved back inside to guard yesterday, as expected.

Shurmur and offensive-line coach Jeff Stoutland kept Matt Tobin at left guard and sent Dennis Kelly to the bench, a move that reflected the pecking order there before Tobin's high ankle sprain at the end of the preseason. Tobin and center David Molk each made their first NFL start against the 49ers.

"The way it is, I gotta play," Johnson acknowledged.

But is he ready to play?

"I think it's going to take a few games to get to the top-notch level, but I don't think I'm too far off right now," said Johnson, the fourth player taken in the 2013 draft.

At another point in the interview, Johnson opined that "the only way you can get into football shape is playing football," and concluded, "I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I think I'll be good enough . . . Workout shape, I'm in the best shape of my life."

Johnson said he worked out at the API facility in the Dallas area 5 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., then worked out in a pool on Saturdays. He was able to work against Victor Butler, a linebacker who was trying to stay in shape, until Butler signed with the Cardinals on Sept. 16. (Butler was released yesterday.) Johnson said he did pass-rush drills wearing a 20-pound weighted vest, and also ran and lifted.

The friend's house in Mesquite was an hour's drive away from API, with traffic, but the lodging was free, not an unimportant consideration for a player who lost a quarter of his $1.2 million salary to the league suspension. Johnson has said the banned subastance was taken for a medical issue, but he has declined to identify it.

"The past is past," he said. "I'm glad to be back."

Coaches were not allowed to communicate with Johnson during the suspension. His main point of contact was Herremans. "I'd call him and he'd tell me some of the new stuff that was going in," said Johnson, who said he also texted with Herremans a few times a week.

"It was tough missing him for the first four games," Herremans said. "He looks like he kept himself in good shape, and we'll see how this week goes."

Obviously, the Eagles hope Johnson's return, and the return of Herremans to his familiar guard spot, will significantly bolster a stymied run game, though as long as Mathis and especially Kelce are sidelined, the line is unlikely to be as dominating as it was in 2013. The Rams rank 30th in the NFL against the run.

"Hopefully I can open up some lanes, we can get the run game going, so we don't have to rely on Nick [Foles] as much," Johnson said.

"It's going to be awesome to have Lane back, have Todd go back to his natural position," left tackle Jason Peters said. "We're still missing Mathis and Kelce, but those other guys [Tobin and Molk], I think they're going to do better this game, because you've got Lane back; it makes it solid on the inside."

Chip Kelly's offense is run-based; all of the critiques of Foles and his receiving corps should probably be weighed against that fact. Run-based offenses that can't run generally don't prosper.

"We are all responsible for it," Shurmur said, when asked if the offensive line is responsible for LeSean McCoy's dip from 5.1 yards per carry last season to his current figure of 2.7. "I think LeSean's fine and he's running the ball well. It's just, you know, I think at some point here it'll all come together."

The St. Louis game will unveil the Eagles' fourth offensive line combination of the season. In 2013, the same five linemen started every game.

"It's what we've got to deal with," Herremans said. "It doesn't make sense to sit here and talk about how hard it's been or how easy it's been. It's just what we have to do. Make our adjustments and keep moving."

Dennis Kelly, the guy who lost his starting gig because of Johnson's return, said Johnson "gives the line a lot of athleticism, a lot of explosiveness."

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