Thursday was the Eagles' final preseason game, and as is customary, the overwhelming majority of the starters didn't play. Interestingly enough, Lane Johnson was among the regulars that didn't take the field.
Johnson's absence was noteworthy because the right tackle had been demoted to the second-team offense in anticipation of a 10-game suspension for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing drug policy. For some unknown reason, the reported ban has not yet been handed down by the league, so Eagles coach Doug Pederson made the safe choice.
He held his fourth-year offensive lineman out of a meaningless football game.
"Until I get further word from the league office, he goes in as my starting right tackle, so I just decided to keep him out of this game and not risk any type of injury we could avoid," Pederson said. [[247269581, C]]
The delay of Johnson's suspension begs the question as to what exactly is going on here. News of a positive test first broke almost one full month ago, yet the league office has offered precious little information regarding the 26-year-old's status for the 2016 season.
Pederson is resigned to the fact that it could be awhile before the Eagles receive word of Johnson's guilt or innocence either way.
"If I haven't heard now, it may not be in the next couple days," Pederson said.
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The longer this drags on, the more everybody is left to wonder whether there's a chance Johnson might ultimately be cleared. Initially, he maintained the substance he tested positive for was legal under NFL rules, and the most recent update Johnson provided on the matter had the league checking on the test results of a "B" sample.
Pederson has no idea one way or the other as to the likelihood of the ban being overturned, although neither he nor Johnson have sounded very optimistic.
"I don't know that," Pederson said. "I'm not gonna speculate, but that's why we did what we did during training camp with the plans and the different guys, just so we would be prepared for this situation."
Allen Barbre had been filling in for Johnson at right tackle with the first-team offense, while veteran Stefan Wisniewski and third-round rookie Isaac Seumalo were competing over his spot at left guard. Pederson confirmed Barbre will move back to guard if Johnson is allowed to play.
The real hard part, as Pederson explains, is what happens in the coming days, as the Eagles must now whittle their roster down from 75 players to 53 by 4 p.m. on Saturday. Not knowing for sure whether Johnson will be part of the equation for 10 weeks of the season might cause a bit of a problem.
"It is tough," Pederson said. "You would like to know one way or the other whether or not you get the exemption spot, things like that. It could be difficult, it could be a little challenging, but I'm not going to let that bother our football team, I'm not going to let that bother us.
"We're just going to get ready for Cleveland."
Cleveland is the Eagles' opponent in Week 1 of the regular season, which is on September 11, or little more than a week away. While the club has been aware of the suspension for a while, the fact that there's any mystery at all at this stage of the season has been the source of some turmoil.
Whatever winds up happening with Johnson, apparently Pederson and the Eagles will simply have to adjust accordingly.
