January 01, 2025
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Lane Johnson has never blocked for a player quite like Saquon Barkley.
Lane Johnson has been around for a long time.
He's seen a lot. He's done a lot, too.
But playing with a 2,000-yard rusher behind him, and one who has a legitimate shot at claiming the NFL's single-season rushing record on the narrow chance that he does end up playing on Sunday, that's a first – for both a player and a milestone that Johnson realizes doesn't come around all that often.
His perspective is painted by prior Eagles history though, so when the media huddled around his locker asked him about his thoughts on Saquon Barkley reaching above 2,000 yards rushing, after the Eagles drubbed the Dallas Cowboys 41-7, Johnson called back to when he was blocking for LeSean McCoy way back in 2013.
"It's a testament to him," Johnson said of Barkley's 2,005 yards on the year and his 167 racked up from that day. "Coming to another team, first year, a lot of expectations, he's just a truly super talented football player, great teammate. I was happy for him, and I was reminding the guys, you know, I had the leading rusher my rookie year with LeSean, and I thought it was going to come often. I expected that, and here I am in my 12th year, so it's special."
Now more than a decade ago, McCoy, with a 23-year-old Johnson in front of him, rushed for 1,607 yards to set the Eagles' previous single-season rushing record and to help catapult that year's team into the playoffs under then-first-year head coach Chip Kelly.
But of course, none of that lasted. McCoy was traded to Buffalo just over a year later as part of Kelly's infamous retooling of the team, and the coach got shown the door himself several months later when his vision of the Eagles arrogantly underachieved.
Johnson stuck around, developed into one of the NFL's best offensive tackles, then helped achieve the once-thought-impossible of a Super Bowl title in 2017 under Doug Pederson and another run to it in 2022 under current head coach Nick Sirianni.
But that all happened with a revolving door of running backs – Darren Sproles, Corey Clement, LeGarrette Blount, Jay Ajayi, Boston Scott, Miles Sanders, Jordan Howard, Kenny Gainwell, D'Andre Swift, and the list goes on.
Some of them were good, others not so much, and some of them were crucial to those 2017 and 2022 runs. But none of them ever came close to that leading year from McCoy that Johnson got to see in Year 1.
Barkley is different. He's a leap above all of them, a backwards one even, and an outright star who signed here and just as quickly captured the city's consciousness in a way not quite seen from an Eagle since maybe Randall Cunningham.
That's special. That doesn't come around often, provided it ever does, and Johnson can especially appreciate that after everywhere his career has taken him.
It's a similar sentiment that's been echoed by other Philadelphia athletes in the past.
Back in January 2023, ahead of the NFC Championship Game that went on to send the Eagles back to the Super Bowl, Brandon Graham, another longtime vet, talked about how Brent Celek went to the NFC title game immediately into his career in 2008. The Eagles lost to the Arizona Cardinals, but the former tight end figured they'd be back, that it would be the norm.
He didn't get that far again until years later with that run of a lifetime in 2017, when his role was reduced and his playing days were at the end of the line. Celek learned to cherish every moment, and by proxy, Graham, too, when a reshaped Eagles team rallied all the way back five years later.
Claude Giroux knew the feeling from across the street also. The former Flyers captain was on the Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, as a rising star behind the core of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Chris Pronger, and all of that season's unsung heroes.
They lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the end, but successful so soon, Giroux figured he and the Flyers would be right back to win it, he recalled after he signed with the Ottawa Senators more than 12 years later. They never did.
"It's hard to win," Giroux said back in 2022 of what followed that run. "Sometimes you have to learn the hard way."
And learn to appreciate the magic that's right there in front of you while it still is.
This photo of Saquon & the O-Line is everything to us 📸 pic.twitter.com/EUZcoQAjlg
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 29, 2024
Record or not, what Barkley has accomplished as an Eagle already is exceptional.
No one else in Kelly or Midnight Green has done what he's done, has blown games open like he has, or has made the New York Giants regret a decision any harder.
The story of the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles is still being written. Barkley is going to keep playing a major role in where that tale ends, with everyone hoping it'll be a parade back down to the Art Museum steps, but even so, it isn't complete without him regardless.
Philadelphia will look back on that signing and the offseason "Hard Knocks" that offered the lense in from the Giants' side. It'll remember how he took off in that first game in Brazil, and seemingly every game after. It'll absolutely remember the backwards hurdle, the 2,000 yards, and however close Barkley ultimately does come to Eric Dickerson's 2,105-yard milestone.
And that's all special, and not to be taken for granted – to see and be a part of.
Lane Johnson, after 12 years in the NFL, knows that.
"It's awesome," Johnson said. "It's something you don't really aim for in the beginning of the season, it's really...you see where the momentum takes you. Our identity and what we are..we're multi-faceted. We have a lot of guys that can make plays all over the field, so he's one of them."
Philadelphia knows that, too.
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