Legendary Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson announced his retirement in the middle of his 14th season with the franchise.
“I have given it my all for 14 years, season after season pushing my body to the max and tirelessly working my craft to not only live up to the legacy of the guys that came before me, but to set a new standard of success for the best franchise in all of sports,” Johnson, 36, shared via social media on Tuesday, October 6. “I deeply wanted to gut it out for one more year; to take the field with my brothers for one last season. But after a lot of reflection, I’ve realized that my personal and family priorities in my life have changed.”
Johnson appeared in the first three games of the 2026 NFL season, but did not play in the Eagles’ Sunday, October 4, game against the Los Angeles Rams due to personal reasons.
“Right now, it is critical that I focus on my mental health,” Johnson continued. “I owe it to my teammates, coaches, the organization and the fans to have my head and heart 100 percent in the game. And right now my heart is telling me that it’s time to say goodbye to football.”
Johnson married his wife, Kelsey Holmer, in April. He shares three children — sons Jace, 13, and McCoy, 7, and daughter Journey, 10 — with his ex-wife, Chelsea Goodman. Johnson and Goodman were married from 2013 to 2022.
“Thank you to [Eagles owner] Jeffrey Lurie and the entire Eagles organization for taking a chance on a kid from small-town East Texas, and changing my life forever,” Johnson wrote. “And thank you to the many coaches and teammates I’ve had the honor of working with and playing alongside for the past 14 years; y’all have become lifelong friends and the brothers that I never had.”
Johnson concluded, “Right now, what’s most important to me is continuing to focus on my mental health and spending more time with my kids and family. But Philadelphia will always be home, and I will forever be an Eagle. Thank you for the love and enduring support.”
Throughout this career, Johnson has been open about dealing with depression and anxiety. In 2021, he took a leave of absence from the team to address his mental health..
“The monster kept building and building and building,” Johnson told Fox Sports in October 2021. “It finally came to a point where I said, ‘I’m not gonna take it no more.'”
He continued at the time, “The first game against Atlanta, I told my mom … ‘Something’s really, really wrong with me. I don’t know exactly what it is.’ I said, ‘I’m miserable. I know my mind isn’t right. I know my body isn’t right.’ So I left [the Eagles]. I went back home. I didn’t have any communication with the Eagles.”
Johnson admitted trying to talk about his mental health with people who “have no clue” what it’s like was “very difficult.”
“You lose touch of your sense of self,” he said at the time. “You lose touch of what’s really going on around you. And what we really tend to do is lock up, not want to say anything.”
He added, “I was ashamed, to be honest. In this league, the NFL, where it’s a gladiator-type sport, it’s something that’s not often talked about but is often felt throughout the league.”
