Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson said in August that 2026 will likely be his last year. After three games, he decided to retire now.
He has an absolute right to do that. No player should continue to play professional football if they no longer wish to do so – for whatever reason.
This move, however, has financial consequences, for the Eagles and for Johnson. If he had opted out after the season and if the Eagles had waited until June 1 to work him out, Johnson would have counted $15.978 million against the cap in 2027 and $38.8 million in 2028. Now, he will count $54.778 million against the cap in 2027.
The Eagles will also have the prerogative to seek reimbursement of payments previously received from Johnson. It gets complicated; they can recoup undistributed signing bonus money and a portion of his $21.7 million 2026 option bonus (only half of which has been paid). And the recovery of the amounts they are entitled to pursue will be credited against the dead money charges.
First, the Eagles have to decide if they want to try to cash in on a first-ballot Hall of Famer, which makes a lot of sense for the team. While the Lions did it with Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders and Hall of Fame receiver Calvin Johnson, the Eagles may choose not to let go of such an important player by asking him to pay back.
Second, there is a way to improve the situation to delay most of the corkage charge until 2028, in theory. If, for example, they place him on the non-football injury/illness list for the rest of the season and he officially retires after June 1, 2027, the Eagles will avoid picking up the $54.778 million cap hit in 2027.
The fact that the Eagles have yet to make a roster move with Johnson suggests they are coming up with a good strategy. The best would be to delay retirement, agree not to seek repayment of the money he’s earned (while possibly not paying the $10.85 million he’s due on Dec. 1) and fix the cap fallout to avoid a potential mess in 2027.
