With no room for error, Eagles OT Lane Johnson explains his new diet | Marcus Hayes

Lane Johnson embraces the elephant in the room.

If it's not careful, he might eat it.

After positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs (PED) earned him a four-game suspension in 2014 and a 10-game suspension last year, Johnson has proudly become a something of a nutrition nerd. Most players who pop twice and face a 2-year suspension are reluctant to talk about it.

Not Johnson. He's eager to prove his reformation.

"No more setbacks for me," he vowed Tuesday, the first day of organized team activities for the Eagles.

They drafted Johnson fourth overall in 2013 and immediately inserted him at right tackle, where he progressed nicely. Then he was suspended for the first four games of 2014 for reportedly using Adderall. He signed a hefty extension in January of 2015 but popped again three months later. This time he said that he unwittingly used a tainted supplement.

That won't happen again, he said. Indeed, a quick inspection of the shelf in Johnson's locker revealed no noticeable supplements. In the Eagles' locker room, that appeared to make Johnson a minority of one.

From now on, Johnson said, he will follow "the Yellow Brick Road," a straight and narrow path that means sacrifice.

One of the properties of some supplements is their capacity to burn fat, which allows users wider latitude in their diets. Before this offseason Johnson indulged like any 6-foot-6, 317-pound, 26-year-old from East Texas.

Those indulgences are becoming extinct for Johnson.

"I've been cutting out the ice cream. All the B.S.," he said. "Fried foods: that's what I was raised on. Chicken-fried steak. Mashed potatoes. Corn bread."

He allows himself an occasional cheat day, but even that is becoming less appetizing.

"Probably once a week I'll have a sloppy meal," Johnson said. "Other than that, though, I've come to find out that if you eat clean, when you go back to that other food, you get heartburn, indigestion. So, that's why I mostly stay away from it. I eat a lot of steak, a lot of fish."

That takes a lot of discipline, but Johnson understands the consequences for himself and his teammates. If he tests positive again, not only will his career essentially be over but it will cripple the franchise.

The entire structure of the offensive line depends on him playing at the dominant level he reached in 2015, then again in his six games last season. The Eagles were 5-1 in Johnson's starts in 2016. He was the best player on the team. They expect him to be a cornerstone for the next decade.

Johnson might replace perennial Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters as soon as next season … if Johnson isn't suspended next season.

Johnson's physique looks about the same as it did when he was using supplements. It doesn't feel the same.

"I feel good. Body feels good. I'm in good shape," he said. "I'm just following the diet. Eating clean."

Upon hearing that, right guard Brandon Brooks leaned over from his locker next door and said, "Really? I saw you at Miller's Ale House last night."

"That's right. Steak and shrimp," Johnsons replied, and explained: "I've been eating a lot of steak and shrimp. And potatoes.

"My main deal is just staying off the ice cream. Sweets. But I like my Starburst and Skittles." He sighed. "It's an addiction."

There are worse addictions.